The SOLAR lab’s research includes The Archaeological Water Histories of Oman (ArWHO) Project (pronounced ar-who), which has been conducting field research in Al-Dhahirah Governorate of northern Oman since 2011. The ArWHO Project is a collaborative archaeological research effort investigating the long-term role of water and trade in ancient Oman, with the permission and support of Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. The project was funded from 2013-2017 by a grant from NASA for an archaeological survey and satellite imagery based study of ancient water histories. More recently ArWHO research has been supported by the Australian Research Council and the US National Science Foundation.

The ArWHO team’s most significant results have included 3D modeling of an Bronze Age tower, discovery of the chlorite vessel production site of Aqir Al-Shamoos, discovery of a water channel beneath the desert bronze trade network site of Safah, and development of new remote sensing techniques for mapping ancient copper slag deposits in Wadi Raki. The project has generated more than a dozen publications and has helped facilitate three PhD dissertations (Ioana Dumitru, Smiti Nathan, and Frances Wiig) with research on three additional PhD dissertations currently underway (Amir Zaribaf, Paige Paulsen, and John Shannon).

First Discovery of Soft-Stone (Chlorite) Vessel Production in Arabia

Short 3-minute report on ArWHO Project research at the site of Aqir Al-Shamoos (in Arabic).