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巴特·库特姆和艾因考古遗址

摘要: 巴特是一个史前遗址,位于阿曼苏丹国内的一片棕树林附近。它和周围的遗址一起共同组成了公元前3000年时最完整的村落和公共墓地遗迹。Archaeological Sites of Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn (Oman) © UNESCO

巴特是一个史前遗址,位于阿曼苏丹国内的一片棕树林附近。它和周围的遗址一起共同组成了公元前3000年时最完整的村落和公共墓地遗迹。

Archaeological Sites of Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn (Oman) © UNESCO

巴特、库特姆和艾因考古遗址位于阿曼北部,在首都马斯喀特西南约210千米处。巴特遗址在伊卜苏拉以东约30千米巴特村庄附近;库特姆遗址位于巴特西面2千米处;艾因考古遗址位于巴特东南约22千米处,1988年作为文化遗产列入《世界遗产名录》。

世界遗产委员会描述:巴特是一个史前遗址,位于阿曼苏丹国内的一片棕树林附近。它和周围的遗址一起共同组成了公元前3000年时最完整的村落和公共墓地遗迹。

巴特、库特姆和艾因考古遗址位于阿曼北部

见证阿拉伯半岛的青铜时代

阿拉伯半岛是伊斯兰教的发源地,是阿拉伯帝国的摇篮。阿拉伯半岛是世界上最大的半岛,也是亚洲西南的一个半岛,这个半岛地域辽阔,面积为三百万平方公里,约等于欧洲的四之一,美国的三之一。阿拉伯半岛位于亚洲的西南,北界叙利亚沙漠,南滨印度洋,东接波斯湾和阿曼海,西临红海。

这处遗址可以划分为三个独立的考古地带

阿拉伯人在世界历史上具有极大的意义和重要性。很多历史学家和考古学家在研究和分析了世界四大文明古国——埃及、古巴比伦、印度和中国之后,把焦点再一次投向两河流域的古巴比伦。二百年来科学家们研究历史发展的主要的参考资料是用阿拉伯语写的伊斯兰教的文献、最著名的史诗及文化传说。考古学家们在美索不达米亚到处都发现了苏美尔人时期宏伟华丽的石像和浮雕,苏美尔人在其悠久历史潮流的某一阶段,创造了图案精美的陶器和他们迅速发展的熔炼金属的技术。从而开辟了学者们所说的“青铜时代”,苏美尔人的文化遗产在美索不达米亚历史上一直流传下来,纵贯巴比伦、亚述和波斯时期,他们的一神论的原始信仰也始终保持在各民族中。早期的苏美尔文字资料根本找不到有政治事件的记载,有关人和事的记载,只是在苏美尔历史晚期才出现的,而且记载的只是一些史诗的传奇故事和神话。这给历史学家解释考古发现造成了困难。

5座圆形塔,是用几乎未加工过的石头砌成

古代,巴特地区是美索布达米亚地区重要的石头和青铜产地。巴特、库特姆和艾因考古遗址中,一些坟墓的保存程度惊人的完好。人们在这里所进行的挖掘工作已经表明了这里对阿拉伯半岛的早期文化的理解具有极为重要的作用。

用石头砌成的古老遗迹

巴特遗址耸立着5座圆形塔,是用几乎未加工过的石头砌成。塔底直径约20米,高度约10米,是阿拉伯半岛青铜器时代的代表性建筑物。巴特还有众多的墓地。这些坟墓建于公元前2200~前1800年之间。坟墓有两种,一种不用灰泥,只用石头堆起来,约有300座;一种形状像倒扣的蜂窝,约100座。从墓地已出土各种各样的陪葬品,有刻着黑色几何图形的红色水罐,滑石做的容器,以及珍珠、青铜器等。

塔底直径约20米,高度约10米

这处遗址可以划分为三个独立的考古地带:第一部分恰好位于巴特村以北,这里有一处居民房和公共墓地的遗址,这座居民房是由5个由石头砌成的塔楼和一系列呈矩形的房子组成的。公共墓地遗址处又划分为两个部分,即散布于岩石林立的山坡上的石墓和密密麻麻汇集于一起的呈“蜂窝状”分布的石墓;第二部分是坐落于巴特以西2公里处的库特姆城堡;而在巴特东南21千米的地方,位于艾因的一群“蜂窝式”的坟墓则构成了第三部分遗址的景观。

The protohistoric site of Bat lies near a palm grove in the interior of the Sultanate of Oman. Together with the neighbouring sites, it forms the most complete collection of settlements and necropolises from the 3rd millennium B.C. in the world.

Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis


The protohistoric archaeological complex of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn represents one of the most complete and well preserved ensembles of settlements and necropolises from the 3rd millennium BCE worldwide. The core site is a part of the modern village of Bat, in the Wadi Sharsah approximately 24 kilometres east of the city of Ibri, in the Al-Dhahira Governorate of north-western Oman. Further extensions of the site of Bat are represented by the monumental tower at al-Khutm and by the necropolis at al-Ayn. Together, monumental towers, rural settlements, irrigation systems for agriculture, and necropolises embedded in a fossilized Bronze Age landscape, form a unique example of cultural relics in an exceptional state of preservation.


Seven monumental stone towers have been discovered at Bat and one is located in al-Khutm, 2 km west of Bat. The towers feature a circular outer wall about 20-25 m in diameter, and two rows of parallel compartments on either side of a central well.  The earliest known tower at Bat is the mud-brick Hafit-period structure underneath the Early Umm an-Nar stone tower at Matariya. The latest known tower is probably Kasr al-Rojoom, which can be ceramically dated to the Late Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2200-2000).  All of the stone-built towers show dressed blocks of local limestone laid carefully with simple mud mortar.  While conclusive evidence of their function is still missing, they seem to be platforms on which superstructures (now missing) were built – either houses, or temples, or something else entirely.


The vast necropolis at Bat includes different clusters of monumental tombs that can be divided into two distinct groups. The first group is Hafit-period “beehive” tombs located on the top of the rocky slopes surrounding Bat, while the second group extends over a river terrace and includes more than a hundred dry-stone cairn tombs. Another important group of beehive tombs is located at Qubur Juhhal at al-Ayn, 22 km east-southeast of Bat. Most of these tombs are small, single-chambered, round tombs with dry masonry walls dating to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE. Others are more elaborate, bigger, multi-chambered tombs from the second half of the 3rdrd millennium BCE.


As in many other ancient civilizations, monuments in ancient Oman were usually built with regularly cut stones. Unique of Bat and al-Ayn are the remains the ancient quarries from which the building materials were mined, and the many workshops that attest to the complete operational procedure, from the quarries, to the stone-masonry, to the buildings construction techniques. The continuous and systematic survey activities constantly increase the types and number of monuments and sites to be documented and protected, which include villages and multiple towers, quarries associated with the Bronze Age stone-masonry workshops, Bronze Age necropolises, an Iron Age fort, Iron Age tombs, and two Neolithic flint mines connected with workshop areas for stone tool-making.


Criterion (iii): The area encompassing the settlements, the necropolises and the workshop areas of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn is the most complete and best known archaeological complex in Eastern Arabia for the 3rd millennium BCE.  Cuneiform texts of ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq), dating to the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, tell us that the country of Magan (Oman) was at the time the principal extraction centre of copper, which was exported overseas to Mesopotamia to the northwest, and possibly to the Indus Valley in the east. Archaeological evidence for the appearance of a more hierarchical and structured social organization is attested at Bat in both the settlements, where circular monumental structures contrast with rectangular houses, and the necropolises, where the arrangement of funerary space increased in complexity and the grave goods testify to higher living standards and social changes mainly due to the introduction of a long-distance trade economy.


Criterion (v): In a restricted, coherent space, the necropolis of Bat bears characteristic and unique witness to the evolution of funeral practices during the Early Bronze Age in the peninsula of Oman.


Integrity


The archaeological sites of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn encompass the most unique ensemble of 4000-5000 year-old burial monuments, towers, and remains of settlement in the Arabian Peninsula, representing an extraordinary example of the unique response of the ancient people of Oman to the pressures of an increasing population and to the input from contacts with other civilizations.


The actions of time, erosion and weathering processes, has slightly damaged some structures, but in general, the sites at Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn are very well preserved and they continue to express their exceptional cultural value and incredible monumentality.


Authenticity


Bat and its surroundings represent a mosaic of intact, authentic monuments of great antiquity, represented not only by villages and funerary buildings, but also by the many monumental towers and irrigation dams. For centuries, the tombs were used and reused, thus preserving their original function and meaning.


Protection and management requirements


The archaeological complex of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn are protected by the law for National Heritage Protection of the Sultanate of Oman (1980), and they are studied and preserved under the control of the Ministry of Heritage & Culture and its Department of Excavations and Archaeological Studies (DEAS). The Ministry of Heritage & Culture is presently developing a new “Management Plan” and a new “Memorandum of Understanding”, focusing on the following three points:


(I) to protect the site from destruction by regulating access to and development of specific parts of the site; (II) to promote understanding of the meaning of each site and monument through scientific study of archaeological remains and the contemporary landscape; and (III) to promote the dissemination of these studies through the development of an interpretive programme oriented for local and international tourism, including the creation of one or more interpretation centre at site.


To answer these goals, the following elements are under way or planned: Since 2004 the Ministry of Heritage & Culture there has started a comprehensive international project in close collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania Museum (Philadelphia, USA), the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo, Japan), the German Mining Museum (Bochum, Germany), and the University of Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany), for the documentation, the study and the conservation of the archaeological complex of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn. Research have been concentrated on tombs (German Mining Museum and University of Tübingen), monumental towers (University of Pennsylvania Museum), local settlement patterns (University of Pennsylvania Museum and University of Tübingen), and quarries (German Mining Museum). In 2009, the Department of Explorations & Archaeological Studies of the Ministry of Heritage & Culture excavated the monumental tower at al-Khutm.


The continuous collaboration and interaction between all teams involved in the study of the archaeological complex of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn, under the constant supervision of the Ministry of Heritage & Culture, has resulted in the creation of a more detailed typology for the tombs and the monumental towers. Moreover, this research strategy has led to an increasing understanding of the social-cultural and environmental contexts that eventually resulted in the foundation and the development of such a complex mosaic of villages, necropolises and hydraulic structures still visible at Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn.  In light of recent discoveries at al-Ayn, it might be worth considering an enlargement of the boundaries of the property for the re-inscription of Bat, Khutm, and al Ayn to include also the row of tombs locally known as Qubur al-Jehhal, situated near the modern village of al-Ayn.


Plans are being developed to begin the restoration of the best preserved monumental tower, the so-called Kasr al-Rojoom.


A local inspector has been entrusted by the Ministry of Heritage & Culture to monitor the construction and the development of modern infrastructures and any potentially destructive access to the sites.


The main cemetery site was already partly fenced off from vehicular traffic, but the construction of a complete fence began in 2009.


The area surrounding the sites will be tested by means of non-invasive geophysics techniques (e.g. magnetometry and ground penetrating radar) to find an appropriate place for building a visitors centre, a museum, the car park, and all the facilities requested to enhance the public fruition of the sites.

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