Umm An-Nar

Bronze Age settlement and chamber tomb cemetery on a small island of Abu Dhabi on the Oman peninsula. The site has given its name to an early 3rd-millennium BC culture, also found through southeastern Arabia. Characteristic Umm an-Nar pottery, funerary architecture, and other artifacts are dated c 2500-2000 BC. Evidence suggests that the Umm an-Nar culture might be identified with the land of Magan, mentioned in cuneiform Sumerian documents.

A settlement and cemetery of chamber tombs on a small island off the west coast of Abu Dhabi on the Oman peninsula. This site, excavated by a Danish expedition in the 1950s, has given its name to an early 3 rd-millennium bc culture, which has also been found on sites in inland Oman, including the Buraimi oasis. Sherds of characteristic Umm an-Nar pottery have been found in the lowest levels at Qala’at al-Bahrain on the island of Bahrain, below the structures of the first city there. This suggests that the Umm an-Nar culture predates the Dilmun culture of the Persian Gulf, dated to the later 3rd millennium BC. The excavators have suggested that the Umm an-Nar culture can be identified with the land of Mag an, mentioned in Sumerian documents, but this identification is based on rather flimsy arguments and has been challenged by other authorities.