ABSTRACT
Relations between the peoples of Mesopotamia and the Gulf go back at least to the late sixth millennium (Carter 2006, 2010), but contacts were ruptured after the mid-fifth millennium BC, probably because of the near-total depopulation of eastern Arabia at that time (Uerpmann 2003). Links were re-established during the fourth millennium, beginning in the Early or Middle Uruk but intensifying towards the end of the millennium when there was renewed settlement in eastern Arabia, stimulated by wetter conditions beginning around 3200 BC and the development of oasis-farming practices in the region. Until very recently, it was thought that these renewed connections did not become significant until the Jamdat Nasr period, with the export of copper produced in the Oman Peninsula to Mesopotamia via the central Gulf. New evidence indicates that this exchange relationship began even earlier, in the Middle Uruk period or before, making it contemporary with the much-discussed Uruk Expansion, when Uruk colonies flourished in the upper Euphrates region and western Iran during the Middle and Late Uruk periods (Algaze 1993, 1989; Stein 1999: 91; Wright and Rupley 2001). Thus, remarkably, for a brief period of time the trading network of the Uruk world stretched from Anatolia to eastern Oman.
