New data from current research is proving decisive in questioning old tenets on the date, context and, as aconsequence, also the prime movers in the formation of so-called ‘urban’ oases in the Arabian Peninsula. This contributiondiscusses both previous scholarship and novel findings in the effort of clarifying the formation processes of theselarge, complex settlements, by looking at new discoveries in the north-west of Arabia compared to chronologicallygermane phenomena in the Levant.