الارتباط المكاني للمواقع الأثرية في عمان: موقع دهوى الأثري نموذجاً

This research is an attempt to understand the distribution of archaeological sites, the oasis settlements in the Omani Peninsula in particular, by studying their geospatial distribution, and their relationship to the suitability of natural resources, especially water, which played a significant role over time in the continuity and discontinuity of settlement patterns. The research also presents a summary of the mechanisms that enabled the prehistoric societies in the Omani Peninsula to adapt to dry environment, during the third millennium BC specifically, through the development of various water provision systems. The research will use the Dahwa site as a model to present the oldest water harvesting techniques invented by man in the third millennium BC. The location of Dahwa sites around Wadi Al-Sukhn is the greatest evidence of the success of the survival strategy that was devised by the inhabitants of those sites in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The five Dahwa sites demonstrate homogeneity amongst them, confirming that they belong to one community and that the sites were carefully selected depending on the availability of natural life sources, especially water. The sites receive the highest percentage of water during the rainy seasons of natural life sources, especially water. The sites receive the highest percentage of water during the rainy seasons
feeding the groundwater reservoirs. Fertile soil is the second major element in site selection on the edge of the valley. The inhabitants of those sites devised a water harvesting system that relied on the diversity of elements, which enabled
them to store large amounts of water that helped them maintain both types of agricultural activities; seasonal and permanent year-long.