Salut a destination for archaeological findings

A number of Bronze Age graves on the hills adjacent to Salut City in Bahla were recently excavated, witnessing a great variability in their structure. Some of them have already been restored, according to the findings by the excavation team.

Addressing a press conference at the Office of the adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Affairs, Dr Said bin Nasser al Salmi, Director-general of the office, said that the office is currently working on the development of this site to be a fully-fledged archaeological park to turn it into a tourist attraction for Omani and foreign visitors.

He added that work has started on planting 300-date palms of different Omani types on a traditional farm and there is a study to showcase the discoveries at the park.

“All the finding will be exhibited at the site for people to see the history of this ancient city,” Dr Al Salmi said.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Alessandra Avanzini, head of the Italian mission of Pisa University in the Sultanate, said that the recent archaeological excavations indicated that Salut site is larger than previously thought. She added that evidence found confirmed the originality of Salut as the heart of Majan Civilization in historic Oman.

Prof Avanzini also emphasised the existence of cultural communication between Salut and the civilisations of the old world in the third millennium BC, where evidence of cultural interaction with ancient civilisations, such as the Indus Valley Civilisation and Mesopotamia Civilisation was found. She said that after the discovery of the massive rock wall dating back to the Iron Age, which was part of a large settlement — the ancient city of Salut — by the end of the year 2015, and because of the excavation works, the features of the city became more visible.