1 Michela Gaudiello & Paul A. Yule, Survey in Wadi Musfah, east of Ǧebel al-Ṣalayli, Sharqiyyah north province (Sultanate of Oman) Survey in Wadi Musfah, east of Ǧebel al-Ṣalayli, Sharqiyyah north province (Sultanate of Oman) Survey 17.–22.10.2018 interim internal report to Ministry of Heritage and Culture, 23.10.2018 Michela Gaudiello and Paul A. Yule, Heidelberg University The purpose of our survey is to update knowledge on this important but neglected find zone, which contains unique and well-preserved tombs and copper producing remains of the Early Iron Age (EIA) and Middle Islamic Period. In the early 1980s researchers from the German Mining Museum in Bochum first visited this metal producing and published diverse find notices about the little-known copper production of this and neighbouring sites (e.g. Hauptmann 1980, 66). The key question is the dating of the copper production. The undersigned also surveyed here previously and submitted a report on 02.01.2018 (cf. report to the MHC, al-Rasibī–Gaudiello–Yule, January 2018). Our efforts focussed on the EIA hut tomb cemeteries and emphasized that the site is being encroached on. The cemetery is used as a quarry. This will increase in the next few years (Fig. 9). Sultan al-Bakri visited the site and confirmed that the Ministry of Housing is considering building on the site (oral information, 16.10.2018). He also requested the coordinates of the hut tombs. We arrived at the site on 17.10.2018 and began mapping the hut tombs by means of a hand- held GPS. The GPS-resolution was excellent, 2–3m radius. Important was to access the dimensions, entrance orientation of the tombs and record the preservation. Given the large population, this should illuminate to some degree the social structure of the population. However, we did no excavation and had no access to skeletal material. Question to be posed included the identification of the associated settlement. Moreover, datings proposed for the site included 'bronze age' (M. Prange 2001, 18 Abb. 14) and early Islamic (Hauptmann 1980, 66), 'Early Iron Age' and 'early Islamic' (Weisgerber 2007, 198–9). Weisgerber wrote that it is unclear which mining activities can be attributed to the Lizq period (ibid.). This is true. However, Mining and smelting can be taken for granted since EIA structures contain slag or are partly built from them. While characteristic of the Islamic dwellings, are indented pounding stones, such are absent in the EIA settlement. Whether or not beneath the Islamic slag fields EIA ones exist cannot be determined without excavation. The entire archaeological zone comprises two clusters. Nearest the mine entrance the settlement of the metal workers, large slag fields and hut tombs lie in one valley. To the NW second loose group of hut tombs is scattered over a wadi and into a valley (Fig. 1). Seven mine entrances (Hauptmann 1980, 66 Abb. 4 & 5) were confirmed at this site. In fact the published place-name 'Musfa' (actually al-Musfah) comprises an area of several square kms and it was unclear exactly where the mine was located, on the N or S side of the Ǧebel al- Ṣalayli. Our registration of the EIA hut tombs revealed some 237 extant hut tombs (Fig. 2 and Table 1). These line the higher wadi beds (Fig. 1). The cemeteries are not planned in a strictly ordered way (Fig. 3). Two main types of hut tombs emerged. Both are roughly U-shaped in plan, but the second type has a broader façade-entrance (Fig. 4). If the tombs are elaborate and costed much time and effort to build, is there is any meaning in the cemetery location and tomb orientation? Al-Ṣalayli cemetery 1 lies on a low