The aim of this thesis is to examine, quantify and re-think the settlement history of the northern Oman Peninsula from the Hafh period (late 4th/early 3rd millennium Be) to recent times. Many surveys have been carried out in the region, but few of them have attempted to provide quantified data on settlement. Their results are good in mapping settlements and providing descriptive information, and when these results are combined, it is possible to obtain a rough and sketchy picture of longer-term regional trends in the growth and decline of settlement intensity but they do not provide a reliable enough dataset to allow quantification. The thesis attempts to achieve its aims by taking a multi-tiered approach to survey and settlement analysis. At the broadest level it examines sites known from the published literature from the whole of the northern peninsula and uses this information in both a quantitative and qualitative way to look at broad regional and sub-regional trends. At the next level it takes a 'local' perspective, looking in more detail at the published results of field surveys carried out within a defined area of study to give insights into the nature of the data and the local pattern of development. At the next level it uses the extensive fieldwork carried out by the present researcher in a single wadi - the Wadi Andam - to produce quantified evidence on settlements, tombs and other archaeological finds at a macro level using a methodology that was specifically designed for this task and this region. At the lowest level it examines the organisation and layout of some individual sites to give insights into the social structure of the societies that inhabited this area. The conclusion attempts to bring together the large amount of data accumulated from the different' levels' of survey and to write them into a coherent narrative outlining the development of settlement over the longue duree in the northern Oman Peninsula.

The aim of this thesis is to examine, quantify and re-think the settlement history of the northern Oman Peninsula from the Hafh period (late 4th/early 3rd millennium Be) to recent times. Many surveys have been carried out in the region, but few of them have attempted to provide quantified data on...