ABSTRACT This study presents the ceramic finds from archaeological investigations conducted in 2024 at two settlements: ‘Islamic Village' and Suhaila 2, one of a number of mountain villages of the Late Islamic period within the Ḥattā Oasis: a high‐altitude exclave in the Emirate of Dubai. The sites are located on the northeastern slopes of Jabal Qallāt Sabbā in the Ḥattā Valley. Excavation conducted on a series of simple, partly preserved, one or two cell stone structures during the course of a heritage conservation project, and survey of nearby areas, revealed occupation spanning the 14th–17th centuries at Islamic Village and 17th to early 20th century at Suhaila 2, representing a near‐continuous sequence of activity in the area through part of the Middle Islamic and throughout much of the Late Islamic periods. The location of this activity is of particular interest, situated as it is on one of the important communication routes through the Jibāl al‐Ḥajar range between the Gulf of Oman issuing into the Indian Ocean c. 35 km to the east, and the Arabian Gulf reached c. 95 km to the northwest at Dubai. Together with the more frequently used pass via the Wādī al‐Jizzī via al‐Buraymī/al‐ʿAyn, these passages connected two maritime zones, cutting out the treacherous passage via the Straits of Hormuz. By mapping long term changes in consumption and the flow of systematically recovered ceramic finds, we hope to gain significant insight into factors of the ancient economy, subsistence and geopolitical configuration. Current research contributes to regional the ceramic chronology and upland settlement archaeology in Eastern Arabia.
Priestman et al. (Sun,) studied this question.