Finally we found ourselves all in our home away from home, the Sultante of Oman.
The first group of the MASPAG team led by Professor Marco Ramazzotti arrived in Muscat and got back the equipment from the warehouses of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism. Then we left towards the Musandam peninsula, sailing the Gulf of Oman, following a marine route as ancient as navigation itself!
Only Giampiero was missing from the first group due to a series of unexpected events: first, due to snowy weather in Munich, he missed the coincidence to arrive in Oman, then the airline lost his luggage and he found himself in Arabia only with winter clothes, coat and wool scarf. Finally, after several other twists and turns, he managed to join the others in Daba al Bayah.
Eventually also Francesco Genchi, our field director, joined us and the team was at full power! He was taking office as a researcher RTDA at La Sapienza University of Rome in those very days! We welcomed him ready to celebrate this very important professional advancement for him and for the whole MASPAG!
Now some archaeological updates
During the first week of excavation we exposed the central corridor of LCG2, the second Long Collective Grave of the funerary complex in Daba, removing a series of collapsed levels already identified inside the chamber during the previous excavations. Their removal will carry on in the coming days, especially in the northern part of the tomb.
Inside we keep on collecting important data relating to primary and secondary burials. The first is a deposition in which the individual is identified with an anatomically coherent position; secondary burials are a displacement and rearrangement of the skeletal remains after the decomposition of the individual.
As we have been taught by past excavation campaigns, the Daba al-Bayah funerary complex returns an incredible collection of materials, in fact in this first week we have collected and documented a very high number of artifacts identified as small depositions and offers in special areas of the structure.
On field hard work, LCG2 
Long collective grave 2 
Artifacts from LCG2
We will continue the excavation of the interior of LCG-2 in order to expose the foundation wall, reaching the oldest level of the funerary monument.
