Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates
The remains of settlements, burials and other extensive evidence of human habitation throughout these eras is littered throughout the UAE, with many extensive finds of rich materials in the shape of pottery, jewellery, weapons and both human and animal remains providing archaeologists and researchers with an increasingly sophisticated picture of longstanding involvement in regional trade alongside nomadic cultures eking out a living from the frequently arid and inhospitable desert and mountain environment of the UAE.
He had undertaken a series of digs in Bahrain and was contacted by the director of Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd, an oil company, Temple Hillyard, who invited them to visit some graves he had found on the small island of Umm Al Nar (then referred to as Umm an-Nar), having been directed to the site by the then-Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
[4] Subsequent excavations by teams from Iraq in the 1970s unveiled the Jebel Buhais site,[5] as well as the hugely significant ancient city of Ed-Dur.
The Mleiha Archaeological Centre displays evidence of the oldest archaeological finds in the UAE, the prehistoric Faya-1 collection, which dates human occupation in the area to 130,000–120,000 BCE, and has been linked to the movement of the first anthropologically modern humans from Africa to populate the world,[6] before finds of a yet earlier date (50,000 years) had been found at Misliya cave in the Southern Levant.
[7][8][9] The Faya discovery, made in 2011, includes primitive hand-axes, as well as several kinds of scrapers and perforators, which resemble those used by early modern humans in East Africa.
[10] Mleiha is also the site of Neolithic as well as Umm Al Nar period burials,[11] and gives its name to the Hellenistic Mleiha period (now more commonly referred to as the 'Pre-Islamic'), from 300 BCE onwards, characterised by the extensive fortified compound, 'Mleiha Fort', which was discovered in the late 1990s and is thought to have been possibly the seat of an ancient South Arabian kingdom.
[12] Recent (2017) studies using Ground Penetrating Radar have uncovered significant unexcavated PIR era buildings and structures in the area around Mleiha.
The archaeological record shows that Arabian Bifacial/Ubaid period came to an abrupt end in eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula at 3800 BC, just after the phase of lake lowering and onset of dune reactivation.
Some 500 of these tombs have been excavated,[21] with grave goods discovered including drinking sets, Roman glass, weaponry, pottery, jewelry and ivory objects.
The Al Ain Oasis, in particular, provides evidence of construction and water management enabling the early development of agriculture for five millennia, up until the present day.
[2] Evidence of trading links with Mesopotamia are also found in the subsequent Umm Al Nar and Wadi Suq periods of UAE history.
[31] Surveys in the area by Dubai Municipality and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan identified 33 archaeological sites ranging in date from prehistory to the late Islamic period.
[35] Evidence of increased mobility among the population points to a gradual change in human habits rather than sudden change[36] and important Wadi Suq era sites such as Tell Abraq, Ed Dur, Seih Al Harf, Shimal and Kalba show an increasing sophistication in copper and bronze ware as well as trade links both east to the Indus Valley and west to Mesopotamia.
[40] A number of Wadi Suq and Iron Age discoveries were made in the mountain village of Bithnah in Fujairah, first excavated by the Swiss-Liechtenstein Foundation for Archaeological Research Abroad (SLFA) between 1987 and 1991.
Presided over by Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, and directed in the field by Pierre Corboud, the SLFA team conducted several seasons of survey in the mountainous inland area of Fujairah, including the excavations at Bithnah, where a communal grave site was uncovered as well as a number of Iron Age finds.
Early finds of aflaj, particularly those around the desert city of Al Ain, have been cited as the earliest evidence of the construction of these waterways.
[43] It is thought nearby Bidaa bint Saud became an important site during the Iron Age, both as a caravan stop and as a settled community of farmers that used the falaj irrigation system there.
In one of the excavations, a number of sandstone-lined shaft holes were discovered, as well as a stepped underground access point and a large open cistern.
Other important Iron Age settlements in the country include Al Thuqeibah, Madam, Bidaa bint Saud, Ed-Dur and Tell Abraq.
[46][47][48][44] Recent finds of pottery in Thuqeibah and Madam have further linked the development of early aflaj (or qanat) water systems there to an Iron Age II date, further substantiating the attribution of the innovation of these water systems to a southeastern Arabian origin based on the extensive archaeological work of Dr Wasim Takriti around the area of Al Ain.
Tikriti cites this and also accounts by the Greek second and third century historian Polybius as being the basis for academic attribution of the technology to Persia.
[43] He notes academics such as JC Wilkinson (1977) adopting an Iranian origin for the technology under the influence of Sargon's annals and Polybius,[43] but points out at least seven Iron Age aflaj (plural for falaj, the word used to denote waterways of this type in the United Arab Emirates) recently discovered in the Al Ain area of the UAE have been reliably carbon dated back to the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In 2016, Rémy Boucharlat in his paper Qanāt and Falaj: Polycentric and Multi-Period Innovations Iran and the United Arab Emirates as Case Studies, asserted that the attribution of the technology to Iranians in the early first millennium BCE is a position that cannot longer be maintained.
A large, fortified settlement thought to have been occupied during the Iron Age II period (1100–600BC), the site has been explored by archaeologists since Muweilah was first identified in a survey conducted by the French Mission to the UAE in 1989, and excavated by an Australian expedition, which started work there in 1994[55] after the discovery of pottery shards by a local resident.
These definitions have been applied particularly to sites where constant phases of occupation and disruption occur in the pre-Islamic, post Iron-Age era such as Mleiha in Sharjah and the related site of Ed Dur in Umm Al Quwain,[13] as well as the late pre-Islamic settlement at Kush, Ras Al Khaimah.
The first excavations took place at Al Nudud in 1973/4 by an Iraqi team,[64] with a subsequent investigation carried out in 1977/8 by John Hansman, who published his discoveries in Julfar - An Arabian Port.
[64] These digs, organised by the Ras Al Khaimah Department of Antiquities and Museums, brought in teams from the UK, France, Germany and Japan.
It is the site of the oldest pearl fishing town in the Persian Gulf, as well as of an Eastern Christian Monastery and Bishop's Palace.
[72] Significant Islamic era finds were also uncovered by digs in Dubai at the Jumeirah Archaeological Site, including a 10th century caravanserai and souq.
