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The recent study of botanical macro-remains from the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic (5th to 8th century) fort of Fulayj (Batinah, Sultanate of Oman) provides a unique opportunity to discuss food and fuel acquisition strategies in an arid environment and to document periods that are little known from an archaeobotanical perspective in Eastern Arabia. Seed assemblages include the first well-identified and directly radiocarbon dated evidence of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor ssp. bicolor (L.) Moench.) in Eastern Arabia, which raises the question of whether the grain was imported from distant sources (for example Yemen, East Africa or India) or locally cultivated. In addition to sorghum, the food plant assemblage includes hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare), date (Phoenix dactylifera) and jujube (Ziziphus cf. spina-christi). Date palm gardens may have existed near to the site as they do today or food products may have been brought from date palm gardens on the Batinah coast where conditions for agricultural production are particularly favourable. Charcoal analysis reveals that the main taxa used for fuel (acacia, prosopis, jujube tree, tamarisk) were collected from local plant communities, occasionally supplemented with firewood gathered in the foothills and mountainous areas.

Organic samples obtained from the interior of fragments of five different torpedo jar vessels found onboard the c. 8th century Phanom-Surin shipwreck (Thailand) were selected for geochemical analyses in order to identify the source of the bitumen lining. These samples were compared to bitumen analysed from torpedo jars excavated from various sites in the Persian Gulf and western Indian Ocean: Shaghab, Siniz, Mahroyan, Siraf, Rig Port along the coast of Iran, Sir Bani Yas in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. The geochemical data comprising biomarker and carbon isotopes on chromatographic fractions were compared to oil seep references from different areas in southern and southwest Iran. To complete the investigation, data on bitumen from several archaeological sites in Iran were used as proxies. Results show that there are two types of Iranian bitumen in the Phanom-Surin samples as well as two distinct varieties of torpedo jars. A potentially older category, represented in the assemblage by a single example, may have been kept in circulation for half a century or more beyond its period of regular use. Our results also indicate that there may be a direct correlation between the different categories of torpedo jar and the respective source of the bitumen. This study documents the links that exist between central Iraq/southwest Iran and Thailand during the 8th century AD.

The 2007 season yielded significant new insights into settlement expansion into the land north of the line of the Gorgan Wall and the later abandonment of these sites in the steppe, prior to the co...