Cyclopean Towers of Magan

There has in recent times been a great deal of woo type speculation over the communal burial towers of the Andes known as Chulpas, what is less considered known to the point of almost totally is that almost the exact same structures were constructed in the land of Magan.

Magan is referred to as ‘copper mountain’ in early Mesopotamian texts and it is precisely through the mining and trading of copper that this land entered Sumerian history

A series of productions of an unmistakable Dilmun character, including seals, have appeared at archaeological sites in both Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), revealing the local trading connections of the country

One of the most frequent architectural forms in the ancient Magan region are the large watchtowers and the sophisticated castles.

This even to the extent that often these cyclopean constructs share the same fascination with multi-angled stones, particularly those providing entrance, even though often only the lower courses of these remain to be seen they did achieve full height, the dating for these commences at around 4,700 years ago for the best constructed, but as far back as around 6,000 years ago for the earlier versions, the main difference being that in scale the first examples were for the extended family whereas the monumental versions provided burial for the entire community.

Many examples of these formidable beehive-shaped Hafit tombs are to be found, occasionally singly on mountain ridges but more frequently concentrated in groups or even in vast necropolises While Hafit graves appear to be nucleus-family tombs with never more than a few burials, the monumental UEN type tombs, with dozens and even hundreds of lying bodies, give the impression of being collective graves.

Some of them where built to an imposing monumental scale using huge slabs

An interesting question with regards to Magan is to what extent this was a Sumerian colony or whether it was an entirely independent trading partner, i don't think the answer to that can yet be known, certainly even as far back as the Ubaid period there were trading connections and in the Enki and Ninhursag myth the Goddess Nintulla is given as the ruler of Magan, her name meaning Lady of the Herd, and perhaps seen symbolized by the gazelle.

There has been consideration with regards to the orientation of these tombs;

UEN cyclopean tombs have a very characteristic plan: They had the form of disks,with a meridian and several – often 4 –subsidiary walls creating as many as sixchambers, and they were well dressed with fine white limestone

On the one hand, Hafit graves show a non-random distribution (positive declinations above major northernmost lunar declination are avoided) with two significant peaks: the highest at an interval between −50º and −29º and a lower one c. −5º.

We may think of the setting of bright or conspicuous culturally relevant stars, such as the group formed by the Southern Cross and α and β Centauri for the former and Aldebaran (following the Pleiades) for the latter.

Star symbols have been found in Dilmun seals in Magan, but in the authors’ experience, stellar alignments are difficult to justify without further ethno-historic evidence

On the first cultural horizon, that of the Hafit, beehive-shaped dry-stone graves were built, and perhaps oriented, according to our analysis, to the first crescent of the moon visible in the west close to conspicuous yearly markers, such as the winter solstice.

Orientation of tombs in ancient Magan

Their archaeo-astronomical ponderings then far from conclusive, but there may be a more direct way to correlate the internal structuring of these tombs with classic Dilmun and Magan symbolism as well as Mesopotamian myth, were the star at the top of the standard/tree of life held aloft by Enki and Ninhursag represented the constellation Canis Major/star Sirius, and was associated with the birth of eight Deities, including the rulers of Magan and Dilmun, Nintulla and Ninsikila respectively.



In symbolic terms that would make good sense, that in death they were collectively assembled like so many star people within their highest regarded motif.



In general i think there should be a lot more evidence forthcoming from the lands of Dilmun and Magan in the future, for example the city of Tell Abraq seems quite well preserved and hasn't been extensively excavated, the first dig occuring in 1982 and on and off since, there is the entire walled city there.;

They did find there the largest communal burial tower which contained the remains of hundreds of people.



Finds at Tell Abraq

And there is a nice little ziggurat at Arja in Oman;



Another interesting point is the similarity in early period artifacts from Tell Abraq and those of early/pre Dynastic Egypt, such as their design of ivory combs, there has long been suggestion of some settlement or contact through a sea faring culture arriving from the shores of the Red sea, which would be a whole different level of intrigue.

You're just trying to get me fascinated with Sumeria, aren't you?

Truly interesting stuff. Won't have time to read it until tonight, but very interesting. If you get a chance, could you link more papers?

a reply to: Byrd

There are these papers on Tell Abraq listed and linked to here in the references, there was also recebtly report of a French team finding ritual ornate weapons in an Omani iron age temple complex at Adam in Oman here, so quite a few things happening there.

Do you have any thoughts on contact/settlement from Magan with regards to pre-Dynastic Egypt, there's long been the suggestion with all the boat carving petroglyphs...?

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Do you see a connection between these and the Tholos tombs of the Minoans?

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Wow some of that jigsaw stonework in the first few photos looks special.. Thanks for the detailed postings..

a reply to: zardust

They are talked of as beehive type tombs, so yes there is that same association and style, the early Minoan dates to around 1,800 BC so these are in fact considerably older with the best crafted at around 2,700 Bc, with more rudimentary versions even earlier than that.

a reply to: skywatcher44

It does look special and suggests that there was meaning related to the usage of the multi-angled stone particularly with regards to the entrance into the tomb, that the final piece of the puzzle as it were was the most difficult to set into place.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

Not saying all of these things are, but regarding Magan, and especially as it was known as 'Copper mountain', could there have been another purpose for at least some of these enigmatic towers other than burial?

I would think a practical use of these things could have been kilns or smelters for smelting copper.

The tower would form the superstructure, while each smelting would require a new internal insulating lining of bricks or rocks built into an internal structure to protect the superstructure from the heat of the firing / smelting process.

A fire could then be set and the heat would liquify the copper from the ore.

Just an idea.

a reply to: MysterX

There is that, and of course it might also be noted that the reason those stones were so well crafted was precisely because they had an abundance of copper tools, but really i don't know if their experience with smelting and furnace influenced the architectural development of the tomb design, whether at one time they were very closely connected.