Ibri

Ibri (Arabic: عِبْرِي, romanized: ʿIbrī) is a city and Wilāyat (Province) in the Ad Dhahirah Governorate, in northwest Oman. Ibri Province (Wilayat Ibri) is distinguished by archaeological landmarks including forts, castles, and towers. In 1979, the largest metal hoard in the ancient Near East came to light in ʿIbri-Selme. Also, there are the remains of the town of Bat, which is the second archaeological site to be classified by UNESCO on the list of world heritage and culture sites, after the Bahla Fort in the A’Dakhliya district. The protohistoric archaeological complex of Bat, al-Khutm and al-Ayn[2] 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 km (15 mi) 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 (1.2 mi) west of Bat. The towers feature a circular outer wall about 20–25 m (66–82 ft) 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[2] 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 (14 mi) 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 3rd 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. [citation needed]