HvWO 024a

Steatite / Soapstone bead with dot in circle design.
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Steatite / Soapstone bead with dot in circle design.

Very rare steatite / Soapstone bead with dot in circle design. Sometimes beads were made from old soapstone vessels. Reference 9: "On Failaka  the only evidence for the working of steatite comes from recycling activities where shards from third Millennium vessels seem to have been reworked as pendants or beads"

 

 

Name:"Steatite / Soapstone bead"

Period: First or second Millennium before Christ

Origin: Location it was made or found in Oman, unknown. Purchased in Nizwa early 1980´s.

References:
  1. Journal of Oman Studies (series)
  2. Mehr als Kupferin Oman by Weisgerber ( worked in Oman e.g. Maysar as an archaeologist over a long period).
  3. The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity Volume 1 by Potts page 249-251
  4. The soft-stone Inventory of Shimal by Haser BBVO 9 p 103-7
  5. The sultanate of Oman Prehistory and Proto-history By Muhd. Abdul Nayeem
  6. Catalog Oman exhibition Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam 2009 page 10,27, 54. ;
  7. Muscat gate Museum memoirs of history April 2001 p 11 Contains photo of similar Vase from Bawshar
  8. Oman Faces and Places page 30 and page 32
  9. Dilmun and its Gulf Neighbors Harriet Crawford
  10. 2016 The bronze age towers at Bat, Sultanate of Oman Researched by the Bat Archaeological Project 2007-2012 edited by P. Thornton etc. Published by University of Pennsylvania 330 pages