The funerary complex of Daba is to date among the richest site of Eastern Arabia. The metal objects unearthed in the site represent a unique assemblage for wealth and quality: a milestone for the understanding of Early Arabian Civilization that for a decade will engage scholars from all over the world. The incredible wealth of the site is represented by thousands of artefacts so far recovered from LCG-1 and LCG-2, mostly metal objects including weapons, ornaments and other ritual paraphernalia, along with five thousands and more beads describing a vast network of exchanges from Iran to the Indus Valley, associated with the bone remains of about five hundred individuals of all age and genders. This evidence indicates that the whole area was as a monumental tribute to the tribal alliance dating from the end of the 2nd millennium BC to the 1st millennium CE.
The burial complex provided some interesting evidence related to the funerary practices and the offering rituals in the Daba sacred area. Several typologies of deposition of skeletal materials have been identified, that differ in reference to their organization, the quantity of bones, the number of individuals represented in them and their association with grave goods and animal bones. In Daba emerged peculiar typologies of secondary depositions, like bone assemblages with a clear structured shape suggesting the use of perishable containers to settle the already skeletonized individuals inside or around the large collective grave.
To date the graves produced a high quantity of material including pottery, softstone vessels, bronze weapons, bronze bowls, bronze, silver and gold jewelleries, shells and stone buttons, and beads of various types. The materials have been archaeologically dated from the Late Bronze Age (1500 - 1300 BC) until the Late Iron Age ¿ PIR A-B phases (around 300 BC - 100 CE) and therefore reveal a long period of use of the funeral area.
The use of innovative techniques in the archaeological investigation, such as some mentioned in the methodological section, will allow us to advance the state of research of the Arabian funerary complexes in the past. The collective tombs identified in the surrounding area were roughly analysed, focusing mainly on the study of the archaeological material. Our project focuses on the variation of the construction techniques through time, on the variability of the funerary and ritual practices, on the study and analysis of bio-archaeological data. Moreover a detailed analysis will be conducted on the archaeological materials, representing a unique assembly for the Iron Age and ranges from metals to stone vases, from ornaments to seals.
The advancement of research in this sector is therefore represented by the structural analysis with modern techniques based on three-dimensional modelling, photogrammetry and detailed reliefs that allow us to identify the numerous restoration phases and the modifications made during the use of the tomb.
The most innovative part of the present project is the systematic and detailed analysis of the human remains, regarding the taphonomical and depositional aspects, the anthropological analysis of the whole skeletal assemblage and the analyses of DNA and isotopes. To date, such detailed analyses on human remains from collective graves of the area have not been carried out, and this approach will allow us to interpret the burial practices in the light of the social phenomenon of the inter-tribal aggregation the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula.
Although not entirely investigated, LCG2 already provided some interesting evidences related to peculiar funerary practices and offering rituals in the Daba sacred area. Several typologies of deposition of skeletal materials have been identified, that differ in reference to their organization, to the quantity of bones, to the number of individuals represented in them and to their association with grave goods and animal bones. Peculiar typologies of secondary depositions emerged in Daba, like bone assemblages with a clear structured shape that suggests the use of perishable containers to settle the already skeletonized individuals inside or around the large collective grave. To underline the multifaceted habits that took place at Daba, several case have been documented in the secondary depositions that likely could be interpreted as naturally mummified skeletal districts, as well as a single case of an entire bone artificially modified in its shape for ritual purposes. Archaeozoological analysis shows that the majority of faunal remains belongs to goats, but also cattle, sheep, dogs, horses and fish are represented. Rare are camelids and pigs. The preferential choice of specific meat portions, often discovered in close relation with human bones, suggests the funerary ritual involved offerings of entire animals or certain parts of them.
All these evidence point out that the Daba sacred area is of fundamental importance for the understanding of the tribal societies of the Iron Age in the whole Arabian Peninsula and the site assumes a role of great significance for the funerary rituals. In Daba burial complex the bones of ancestors acquired a role that seems to go beyond the simple interment, sometimes turning the focus of the ritual into an object for the ritual itself.