Changing identities in the Arabian Gulf: Archaeology, religion, and ethnicity in context

Abstract

The archaeological recognition of multiple and changing identities in the Gulf is difficult, perhaps more so than in many other parts of the world, as it was, and still is in many instances, fraught with political difficulties. Even the title of this paper is not neutral for the use of the term "Arabian Gulf" is one of two options, the other being "Persian Gulf", both of which have ethnic, i.e. relating to Persians and Arabs, and by implication, political connotations, namely whose Gulf is being referred to; Persia (Iran) or Arabia? Here, the term Arabian Gulf will be used, not because this author is privileging one claim over another, but merely because much of the evidence considered originates, and is viewed, so to speak, from the Arabian shore. © 2005 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.