The museum was established on October 5, 1997, by Sheikh Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates.
The museum is home to over one-thousand archaeological pieces, dating from pre-Islamic times, particularly from the Paleolithic Age over 120 thousand years ago until the seventh-century A.D.
These pieces include utensils, pottery, tools, stone and metallic artifacts, as well as ornaments, jewelry, coins, small animal and human statues, in addition to models of skeletons, burials, and houses that were discovered in various places in Sharjah.
This hall includes an enlarged aerial photograph of the northern Emirates in the shape of a map, showcasing Sharjah's location overlooking the Arabian Gulf from the west and the Arabian Sea from the East, making it an intermediary between the other emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Ras Al-Khaimah, Fujairah, and Umm Al-Quwain.
Sharjah varies in terrain, from its coastal plains soaked in sea water to its sandy deserts in the center, and its medium-height mountains in the East.
The open coasts enabled the first inhabitants to communicate and trade with other countries and civilizations, and discovering pottery shards, near Al-Himriya Beach, in northern Sharjah, belonging to utensils from the flourishing Ubaid Period in Southern Iraq, dating back to seven-thousand years ago.
These links were deepened, by sea and land as the first Sharjah residents reached to Yemen, Bahrain, The Levant, Persian Coasts, The Sindh, and as far as Greece.
On the side facing the hall is a model of an archaeological site, where children aged between seven and fourteen can reincarnate the roles of archaeologists and mine the sand using mining tools, trying to find lost archaeological artifacts under the supervision of specialized educationalists guides who help them lift, photograph, and number what they've found before assigning an ID card to it, draw its dimensions, and describe it thoroughly, allowing them to appreciate the efforts of archaeologists.
The hall's display cabinets showcase a rare collection of archaeological findings from Sharjah, and it includes flint tools and personal exquisite ornaments, made out of ones, stones, and even pearls.
Moreover, the hall displays the most ancient pearl necklace found in the UAE, and it was discovered in Jebel Buhais, and it is over seven-thousand years old.
Despite Sharjah's weather becoming drier during this period, a new improvement was made when stone was replaced with metal for making tools needed for daily life.
During this age, creating pottery was popularized and the links between Sharjah and other civilizations were deepened, including the Tell Abraq settlement on the Arabian Gulf coast.
Also, findings proved that the residents were communicating with The Sindh, Mesopotamia, and Delmon civilizations as many pottery utensils, seals, and unique ivory combs buried in those sites and imported from different parts from the world.
They also planted their grounds with wheat and barley for the first time, which made them improve and modernize their irrigation methods to keep up with their increasingly dry weather.
This period is when Muweileh becomes the star of the country, for this village with adjacent houses made out of adobe, located 15 km away from Sharjah's coast on the Arabian Gulf, weaved a network with Yemen, Iran, and Mespotamia, whose nature is not known until now, although proof that it happened was found in its soil, including the first trace of writing found in the United Arab Emirates until now, which was written in the Sabaean Musnad script that originated in Yemen.
It is possible that Maleha was a resting place for caravans before continuing their route across the Gulf's coasts to export its goods from South Asia and Yemen to Persia, etc.
Part of the pieces that made it back included art and ornaments from Maleha, and they were purchased by Sheikh Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Sharjah, after he found out that they were being auctioned in Europe.
It also offers an overview of the life of the average Sharjah resident, in addition to showing a collection of the pieces displayed in the museum.
This handbook was released in March 2008, in conjunction with the opening of the Buhais 18 Hall by His Highness, the ruler of Sharjah, as a way to introduce and explain it.
The book is made up of six chapters where the author, Khaled Hussein Saleh Mansoor, talks about tourism and its importance in today's world.
He also talks about the role of Arab tour guides in introducing the places and landmarks they work in, according to the scientific method used and applied by specialists in the field of tourism guidance internationally.
The author, Khaled Hussein Saleh Mansour, aims to introduce the reader to the different areas of the expeditions, and he takes the reader on a thrilling ride by offering descriptions of life in Sharjah since the first human appeared in it until the beginning of Islam in the seventh-century A.D., and he does this by interrogating the artifacts that were buried in Sharjah's soil, and that were found thanks to the miners' great efforts.