Smithsonian - Perishable Pundit

long strips and joined to make mats, baskets, and food covers.Fibrous material found at the base ot fronds is plied into rope andused to cushion loads on donkeys and camels. The central ribsof fronds are made into clothing fumigators or bird traps, or arelashed together to form panels for constructing dwellings, workshops,and livestock enclosures. Date stalks are split and made intorigid containers, while the dates themselves are added to indigodye vats and leather tanning solutions. Sharp spines projectingfrom the sides of fronds are used as needles by embroiderers. Trunksections are hollowed out to make cattle troughs, mortars, andbeehives, or cut lengthwise into quarters and used as ceiling beams.Any surplus material can be used by potters for tiring pottery.A focus of most oasis towns is the souk (marketplace), whichserves as a base for both the production and marketing of crafts.Carpenters, silversmiths, coppersmiths, and blacksmiths typically havepermanent workshops within the souk itself, while leather crattersset up temporary sunshades under whichthey work and offer leather goods for sale.The indigo dyers of Bahla, among the lastin the Arab world to use natural indigo,continue to work in traditional workshopswith large dyeing vats set into earthenfloors and dyed fabric drying on the rooftops.Souk-based crafts are characterizedby a high degree ot specialization andare typically learned through apprenticeship.Those artisans who work outside thesouk — potters, basket makers, weavers ofcamel and donkey trappings, and rose-waterproducers—sell their finished goods inthe souk directly or through middlemen.Artisanal communities in oasis townsdepend upon and support each other. Forinstance, leather tanners and indigo dyersuse earthenware vats made by potters.Large copper cauldrons are used formaking halwa, which is packaged in palmbaskets, and also tor distilling rose water,which is collected in other copper vesselsand poured from highly ornate silversprinklers. The workshops of carpenters,silversmiths, and potters abound withpalm-frond mats and hand-forged irontools, creating webs ot exchange amongcraftspeople that help maintain the viabilityof traditional artisanry in oasis towns.The date palm is,without question,the most versatileof Oman's naturalresources, and forgood reason itisknown throughoutthe Arab world as,,the "tree oí liíe.[69]OMAN DESERT, OASIS, AND SEA