ABSTRACT
Monumentality and the meaning of monuments have long been important parts of archaeological research into prehistoric complex societies. Over the past century, archaeological perspectives on ancient monuments have ranged from descriptive to interpretive to experiential. As Richard Bradley writes, the significance of monuments lies in their perseverance through time and space and in the way a monument shapes and is shaped by the physical and cultural landscapes in which it is situated. More recently, Bradley has argued that for many cultures in prehistory, monuments were part of ritualized daily life; therefore, the monument itself was not solely a monument in and of itself, but rather within the context of broader cultural traditions. These different approaches to the study of ancient monuments have influenced our own research into the Bronze Age of the Oman Peninsula.
