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International audience; Since 2015 the site of Mudhmar East (Adam, Ad-Dakhiliyah Governorate) has emerged as one of the major ritual complexes of the Early Iron Age (900-300 BCE) in Eastern Arabia. This paper presents the results of the latest excavations in 2019. Two areas were investigated. The excavation of Mudhmar East 3 on the jabal slope was completed and this area revealed three monumental walls associated with a complex stratigraphy. Numerous metal artifacts (weapons and snake figurines); and pottery, were recovered in secondary position. The campaign also focused on the grave sitting on the top of the hill, an area distinguished as Mudhmar East 6. This grave, which was badly preserved and had likely been reused, delivered little archaeological material. The 2019 excavation enabled a more thorough investigation of these two essential areas, greatly improving our understanding of this major Iron Age site in the history of Oman.

International audience; In this paper we aim at giving a contribution to a problem that has been the subject of previous studies since some decades: the reason and period of formation of the meridional cracks that affect the dome of the Pantheon of Rome. This problem is investigated using a detailed three-dimensional finite-element simulation in which material nonlinearities, as well as a plausible sequence of the construction stages, are modeled. In particular, we show that concrete shrinkage, together with gravity may have been the main mechanical causes of the cracks in the early phases of the building’s life. Unlike previous studies on the matter, that have largely inspired our research and where simplified 2D finite element models of the Pantheon were used, we make use of a detailed 3D model of the Pantheon’s structure, that takes into account for both the particular geometry of the building, and namely the presence in the dome of a coffering and of caveas, and of the differences in the materials. The nonlinear numerical simulations, in addition, aim at reproducing, through different steps, the (probable) true constructing sequence of the dome, in order to obtain numerical results as much as possible close to reality. The results of our simulations show a rather surprising correspondence with the actual state of the dome: in fact, the overall pattern of the cracks so found is in a very good agreement with the real one, for both the number of the cracks and their extent, which shows that concrete shrinkage may have been the true reason for the presence of the meridional cracks. We have also investigated the role of the stepped rings that exist in the outer part of the dome; we show in this case that some previous studies are not necessarily contradictory, but rather complementary.