Conclusions, Challenges, and the Future of Mortuary Archaeology and Bioarchaeology in Arabia

Abstract

This concluding chapter focuses on the major themes resulting from this volume and the future of this discipline. For too long, Arabia has remained on the margins of the study of the ancient world. Up until that point, previous research thought that this region contained little to no prehistoric archaeology. One of the first and most important results of this volume is to disprove that notion. This work is important, not just in terms of funerary ritual and tomb architecture but also as a reminder that the perspective that homogenizes human behavior on the basis of apparent material culture uniformity runs the risk of erasing individual and group agency. In short, these chapters offer new insights. Arabian archaeology is a young discipline that embraces new conceptualizations of ancient societies and new methodologies modes of practice. Its researchers challenge the strict and often calcified concept of material cultures that compartmentalized southeast Arabian prehistory. As the discipline of Near Eastern Archaeology collapses, an opportunity arises to bring more nuance to our knowledge of how past people lived in Asia.