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Newly discovered funerary contexts of late 3rd / early 2nd millennium BC date at Tayma, North-west Arabia, suggest close contacts to the Syro-Levantine world already during the Bronze Age as evidenced by ceremonial weapons elsewhere known from so-called warrior-graves. At the same time -- surrounded by an impressive wall -- the oasis reached its largest premodern extension. In addition, archaeometric analysis of bronze objects from Tayma indicate an uninterrupted acquisition of raw materials from the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula through Bronze to Iron Ages, together with stratigraphic evidence suggesting a settlement continuity of the oasis, probably independent from the collapse of LBA societies in the Eastern Mediterranean. The interest of foreign powers, such as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Achaemenid Persia in the region can thus be understood as consequence of Tayma being part of earlier Bronze Age networks.