397 Window 36 Carnelian and Agate Beads in the Oman Peninsula during the Third to Second millennia BC Jonathan Mark Kenoyer & Dennys Frenez Carnelian beads found at Umm an-Nar period (2700-2000 BC) and Wadi Suq period (2000- 1600 BC) sites in Oman and the UAE have long been considered to be important indicators of long distance trade with areas such as the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia (Reade 1979: 23-26; Possehl 1996: 157-158; Ratnagar 2004; De Waele and Haerinck 2006; Cleuziou and Tosi 2007; Kenoyer 2008) (Figure 36.1). Early studies focused on the diagnostic long biconical carnelian beads (Cleuziou and Tosi 2007: 126), as well as carnelian decorated with white designs that are commonly referred to as “etched carnelian” (Beck 1933), both of which were assumed to have been produced in the Indus Valley or possibly by Indus crafts persons living in Mesopotamia (Mackay 1943: 212; Reade 1979: 23). Recent studies using more refned techniques of morphological and technological analysis confrm that many of the carnelian beads, both long biconical ones as well as some of the “etched” or what we call bleached carnelian beads were indeed made by Indus or Indus trained craftspersons, either in the Indus or in some other region. It is also evident that some beads were modifed somewhere along the route between the Indus and Oman, possibly in Mesopotamia or even locally. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer • University of Wisconsin–Madison • jkenoyer@wisc.edu Dennys Frenez • University of Bologna • dennysfrenez@gmail.com FIGURE 36.1. Major archaeological sites mentioned in the text (map by J.M. Kenoyer © 2018).