Fulayj: A Sasanian Persian Fort on the Batinah in Oman  

with Eve MacDonald

Fulayj fort was discovered in an area of exceptional landscape preservation on the mid-Batinah Plain of Oman 12km inland from the Indian Ocean coast and 30km south of the major early Islamic port and regional capital of Sohar. A preliminary investigation carried out in 2015 and 2016 during the Persian and its Neighbours Project demonstrated that fort was built by a well-organised external military force in the 5th century CE and that it shares an identical ceramic assemblage to Jazirat al-Ghanam, a Sasanian period military watch station overlooking the Straits of Hormuz discovered in 1971. This paper will discuss the results of the final (2023) season at Fulayj, partially funded by a BIPS research grant, and will discuss the fort in its broader context and connection to a larger Sasanian defensive system on the Batinah in Oman.

About the speaker:

Eve MacDonald is a Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University.  She works on the archaeology and history of the Sasanian Empire, notably on the excavations at the Gorgan Wall in Iran, at the Dariali Gorge in Georgia and is currently part of a team excavating at Sohar Fort, Oman.