How do different types of monuments and different monumental forms express social realities and inform larger social patterns? This dissertation research adds to this discussion from the perspective of the region best known for its ancient monuments: the Middle East. Known to its neighbors as the land of "Magan," the Oman Peninsula in the third millennium BC was the location of a dispersed yet well-integrated cultural tradition known as the Umm an-Nar. The people of Magan were trade partners with both the Mesopotamians to the west and the Indus to the north. Beginning in the late fourth millennium, the integration of coastal fishing communities and interior agricultural oases across the hyper-arid peninsula was matched by the development of a monumental tomb tradition spanning the length and breadth of Magan. In certain places, such as the Wadi al-Hijr, a second monumental tradition developed alongside the tomb tradition: that of the Umm an-Nar "tower." The combination of these two types of monuments provides a unique opportunity to consider the way(s) in which middle-range societies use monuments. This data set is a combination of published and unpublished excavation reports (particularly the towers of Bat by the American Expedition) and a survey designed and carried out for this project. The research progresses in several stages. Survey results indicate a high degree of clustering among the tombs, and occur within a variety of landscapes. I argue that the earliest ("Hafit") tombs mark access to resources, but are also mnemonics of regional social integration. Although the later ("Umm an-Nar") tombs do not mark resources, they reference the earlier tomb tradition, concentrate energy in the mortuary realm and on the monument itself, and thereby indicate a shift toward local (tomb-based) group identity. Excavations (led by the author) at the Hafit-Umm an-Nar transitional tower at Matariya demonstrate a change over time in the monumental aspects of the structure. This research argues that intensification limited access to underground and permanent water sources, and was used by local groups to leverage relative social, economic, and political position. Resource exclusivity flew directly in the face of ideologies of integration, visible in the Hafit tomb tradition, and Umm an-Nar people attempted to off-set this tension through an intensification of their mortuary practices. Contemporary monument types balance tensions between environments, individuals, kin and corporate groups. A diachronic study points to the ways in which structures of both types expand in monumentality. Together, synchronic and diachronic comparisons between different monument types indicate both growing friction between social groups, and a refusal to admit these divisions. Future research should investigate the tensions noted here.
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