First International Conference on the Archaeology of the Oman Peninsula 2026

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Kia ora,

رَمَضَان كَرِيم (Wishing a generous Ramadan to all who observe!)

I am part way through a two-month stay in Muscat, Oman, where I am collecting data for my PhD.

At the start of this month I attended the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the Oman Peninsula and presented some of the recent work of the 'La Trobe University Archaeological Research in Oman' (LARiO) project. The conference, which was hosted at the Sultan Qaboos University campus in Muscat, marked the golden jubilee (50th anniversary) of the Journal of Oman Studies, the peer-reviewed scholarly journal of the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. 


Presenting at the First International Conference of the Archaeology of the Oman Peninsula, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, 1 February 2026. Photo: Roman Garba.


In a great move for the profile of research in Oman, it was announced during the conference that the Journal of Oman Studies was becoming a Gold Open Access journal - follow the link above (further back issues will be added to the website in time).

A short (English language) local news report on the conference can be found here.

As a newcomer to Omani and Arabian archaeology, the conference proved to be a great opportunity to meet other researchers working in the region and hear about their research. Sadly (from the point of view of the individual conference delegate) it was not possible to attend all of the presentations that I would have liked to, as there were two parallel sessions running throughout the three days of the conference. While there was a lack of research presented on my period of research interest - the Palaeolithic (I was one of only three researchers presenting research on this period), I definitely learnt a lot about later periods, particularly the Omani Bronze Age (ca. 3200 - 1300 BCE), the focus of the majority of presentations during the conference.

Most of the presentations were given in English, but it was great to see a few presentations given in Arabic, by local researchers. My Arabic is, shall we say, a work in progress (I'm back on the Duolingo Arabic lessons!), so thankfully there were headsets available that allowed everyone attending the conference to listen to all of the presentations by tuning into a local radio frequency.

Kudos to the translators throughout the conference for their great job - especially to the poor guy who got hit with the double whammy of some unavoidable stone artefact-related jargon and a New Zealand accent!


Listening to the translation of a presentation being given in Arabic during the conference.


Overall it was a great conference and start to my stay in Muscat - thanks to the conference organising team, the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, and Sultan Qaboos University for making it possible. The intention is to make this conference a regular event in the future, and perhaps - إن شاء الله - I will be able to attend again to present some of the results of my PhD research.

And, as always, thanks for reading,

Nick.







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