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In Oman, many coastal sites dated to the Neolithic have yielded material culture related to ornament manufacture. These sites are the remnants of fishermen occupations, developing an economy mainly based on maritime and mangrove resources. The Omani islands of Maṣīrah and Al‐Ḥallāniyah are both situated in the Arabian Sea. Today, Maṣīrah is located about 20 km from the continent, while Al‐Ḥallāniyah is part of the Khurīyā Murīyā archipelago off the southern coast of Oman. On Maṣīrah, workshops have been discovered in Neolithic shell middens, revealing the work of stone and Spondylus sp. shells for bead production, using lithic tools. Separated by approximately 400 km from Maṣīrah, Al‐Ḥallāniyah yielded several Neolithic sites with similar evidence for shell bead production. The main lithic tools discovered are micro‐drills, pièces esquillées (splintered pieces) made of local chert, and multitasking tools made of stone, used as anvils, hammerstone and/or polishing stone. Most of the micro‐drills are made from bladelets either with sharped edges or with steep edges and testify to predetermined knapping operations. However, others created on undifferentiated flakes appear to be more opportunistic (or expedient). Micro‐drills of the Maṣīrah and Al‐Ḥallāniyah types seem to be quite new to the Neolithic toolkit of coastal Oman. Pièces esquillées demonstrate the use of bipolar flaking (performed on an anvil) but functional questions remain. These could be cores, but also chisels used between a hammer and a material (shell) placed on an anvil. Stone tools show marks that are characteristic of use as hammers, anvils and as tools used to polish the beads after perforation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New World archaeologists have amply demonstrated that fluted point technology is specific to Terminal Pleistocene American cultures. Base-fluted, and rarer tip-fluted, projectile points from the Americas have been well-documented by archaeologists for nearly a century. Fluting is an iconic stone tool manufacturing method and a specific action that involves the extraction of a channel flake along the longitudinal axis of a bifacial piece. Here we report and synthesize information from Neolithic sites in southern Arabia, demonstrating the presence of fluting on a variety of stone tool types including projectile points. Fluted projectile points are known from both surface sites and stratified contexts in southern Arabia. Fluting technology has been clearly identified at the Manayzah site (Yemen) dating to 8000–7700 cal. BP. Examination of fluted points and channel flakes from southern Arabia enable a reconstruction of stone tool manufacturing techniques and reduction sequences (chaines opératoires). To illustrate the technological similarities and contrasts of fluting methods in Arabia and the Americas, comparative studies and experiments were conducted. Similarities in manufacturing approaches were observed on the fluting scars of bifacial pieces, whereas technological differences are apparent in the nature and localization of the flute and, most probably, the functional objective of fluting in economic, social and cultural contexts. Arabian and American fluted point technologies provide an excellent example of convergence of highly specialized stone tool production methods. Our description of Arabian and American fluting technology demonstrates that similar innovations and inventions were developed under different circumstances, and that highly-skilled and convergent production methods can have different anthropological implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal sites of the UAE and the Sultanate of Oman in the sixth-fifth millennia BCE share a number of features in their material culture. In addition to lithic techniques, the populations shared particular technologies, such as architecture using load-bearing pots or the production of specific fishing material and ornaments in shell and mother-of-pearl. This corresponds to populations that were already Neolithic, with domestic animals and practising intensive fishing, which was sometimes specialised. Is it possible at this stage in our understanding, to assert that this assemblage is both well differentiated from those of Qatar and the northern Arabian Gulf and culturally homogeneous? Some answers are provided in this note. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, so-called Fasad points have been discovered in Oman and the UAE. These lithic projectile points have been until now fossiles directeurs (or defining artefacts) for Early Holocene human occupation prior to the development of the Arabian Neolithic. It appears that many different types of points are described in the literature as Fasad points, but the actual variability of the archaeological discoveries leads to the necessity for reassessment and clarification of the very definition of this type of artefact. We propose here a new definition of the Fasad points with the creation of sub-types. We also discuss the trend of using this lithic type as a marker for the diffusion of PPNB technology towards the south-east from the Mediterranean Levantine Neolithic core area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]