A Cosmopolitan City on the Arabian Coast

The ancient port of Sumhuram is situated about 35 km east of the modern city of Salalah, in Dhofar, the southernmost region of the Sultanate of Oman. The settlement was built on a rocky outcrop dominating the Khor Rori lagoon, about 2 km from the seashore. The site was founded in the 3rd century BC and abandoned in the 5th century AD. The site and the area of Khor Rori has been under investigation by the Italian Mission to Oman (IMTO) of the University of Pisa, directed by Alessandra Avanzini, during the last twenty years. Throughout its long history, Sumhuram was involved in an international network of commercial trades and contacts. Relations with Yemen, India, the Gulf, Egypt and the Mediterranean are attested by numerous small findings and a large amount of ceramic vessels. This book is a comprehensive study of the imported and local pottery of Sumhuram. A contribution by Roberta Tomber about late Hellenistic and Roman pottery completes and enhances the results of this volume. The discussion of the different types of pottery provides important new data about trade connections and maritime contacts in the Indian Ocean in the last centuries BC - first centuries AD.