ABSTRACT
Ras Al Hadd town, on the eastern coast, was an important ancient trading point between East Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. It is home to a range of archaeological sites with evidence of human settlements dating as far back as 4,000 BCE (Cartwright, 1994, 1998; Olijdam, 2001). With connections to the Indus valley, Zanzibar, East Africa, the Persian Gulf, Iran and Iraq, the archaeology of Ras Al Hadd has the potential to significantly contribute to our understanding of over 5,000 years of contact across the Indian Ocean (Cartwright, 2004).
