ADIAS Occasional Newsletter - June 2002

(issue no. 3 of the 2001-2002 Season)



New Late Stone Age finds at Abu Dhabi Airport Site
Dalma Archaeological Sensitivity Study

A new look at the Mleisa footprints
... And more fossils
ADIAS staff changes
New publications
Conference Presentations



New Late Stone Age finds at Abu Dhabi Airport Site

Further fieldwork carried out at the archaeological site at the Abu Dhabi Airport Golf Club and a detailed study of the flint tools recovered during earlier work at the site have confirmed the importance of the site during the Late Stone Age period, around 5,500 to 4,000 BC. The site was first discovered on a range of low hills inside the perimeter of the Golf Club in 1995, when a short season of fieldwork was undertaken by ADIAS. That work showed that the site had been occupied during the Late Stone Age, the early to middle Bronze Age, and in the Late pre-Islamic period, around the beginning of the Christian era. During late April, a review of the stone tools and animal remains from the site was undertaken by the ADIAS flint expert, Dr. Heiko Kallweit, from Germany's University of Freiburg, with the assistance of Dr. Mark Beech, ADIAS environmental archaeologist from Britain's University of York. This involved a detailed re-examination of material collected during the 1996 field season, as well as two further visits to the site, to search for new material that might have been uncovered as a result of the spring rains. "This review and the two site visits have produced valuable new information," according to Dr. Kallweit. "The site was proved to extend further than had been originally recognised, and a nearly complete flint arrowhead was recovered on the southern fringes of the site, as well as a lot of other worked flint material. The arrowhead was of a type not previously known to have been found in the UAE, although similar examples have been found in western Saudi Arabia and in Qatar. This find provides valuable new information on the possibility of trading routes stretching right the way across the Arabian peninsula during the Late Stone Age period."

During the site visits, Dr. Kallweit also found a tiny crescent-shaped fragment of worked flint, known as a microlith, that provides an insight into the way of life of the UAE's Late Stone Age inhabitants. Two further examples were also identified during the detailed review of material collected during earlier fieldwork. "The three pieces are "teeth" of flint that would have been set into a wooden handle for use as an early sickle or knife for cutting grasses," Kallweit said. "Once again, no evidence of such a sickle has previously been recorded in the Emirates, although examples are known from other regions in the Near East. The discovery confirms that the people were harvesting grasses or grains, although it is not possible yet to determine whether they were growing crops, or just harvesting wild plants." Along with evidence of sheep, goat and cattle bones found on archaeological sites on Dalma, in the far west of the UAE, and at Jebel Buhais, in Sharjah, the sickle pieces confirm that the Late Stone Age inhabitants of the UAE were not simple hunters and gatherers, but were a pastoral community with a much broader economic base to their lifestyle.

The newly-identified information has prompted ADIAS to plan for a further season of fieldwork at the Airport site next winter. James McLean, Manager of the Abu Dhabi Airport Golf Club, welcomes the ADIAS plan. "The Club and its members are proud to have such an valuable archaeological site within its course," he says. "No other golf club in the country has anything like it, and we will provide ADIAS with any facilities and help that we can in order to help them discover more information about the site. We look forward to working with ADIAS next winter on this important study into the UAE's heritage and history."

The first phase of archaeological investigations at the Abu Dhabi Airport Golf Club in 1996 were undertaken by ADIAS with the support of the Chairman of Abu Dhabi's Civil Aviation Department, HE Sheikh Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, and were supported by the Abu Dhabi Duty Free. "Our first phase of work proved the importance of this site, and we are grateful for the support provided by Sheikh Hamdan and by Abu Dhabi Duty Free, and for the way in which they have helped to preserve the site," says the ADIAS Executive Director. "We hope that next winter's work will not only lead to yet more important discoveries, but will also show the way in which bodies like Civil Aviation and Duty Free, as well as the Golf Club, can work together with us in the protection of the country's heritage."


Dalma Archaeological Sensitivity Study

Following on from the ADIAS work on Dalma late last year (see last Newsletter), our Resident Archaeologist, Daniel Hull, has prepared a detailed sensitivity study of the archaeological sites on the island. The report has now been submitted to the Abu Dhabi Municipality and Town Planning Department, as well as the Sewerage Projects Committee, to provide them with guidelines on where particular care needs to be taken while undergoing development work on Dalma. With the rapid pace of urban development on Dalma, it is important that the relevant authorities are advised not only of the location of known sites, like the 'Ubaid-related settlement dated to more than 7,000 years ago, the oldest in the Emirates, but also of the techniques that need to be adopted when further work is being planned. The Municipality have now instructed their contractors on the island to liaise closely with ADIAS and ERWDA on further work, while the mapping included with the study will help the Municipality to identify areas within the existing town of Dalma where important archaeological sites may yet remain undiscovered. We thank them for their co-operation.,


New results from Sir Bani Yas study

A short April season of studying excavated material from pre-Islamic Christian archaeological sites on Abu Dhabi's islands of Sir Bani Yas and Marawah has yielded important new dating about the structure of the settlements, and about their cultural links with elsewhere in the peninsula. The two sites, identified by ADIAS in 1991, on Sir Bani Yas, and 2000, on Marawah, are the only confirmed archaeological evidence of the presence of Christians in south-eastern Arabia in the period immediately before the coming of Islam in the 630s.

The Director of the excavations at the two sites, Dr. Joe Elders, who is also in charge of archaeology for many of Britain's churches, and Dr. Emma Loosley, from the University of York, an expert in the early history of Christianity in the Arab Middle East, completed a two week study of the pottery and plaster from the Sir Bani Yas and Marawah sites in early April. According to Elders and Loosley, a study of the plaster from the Sir Bani Yas site indicates that the inhabitants of the monastery were influenced by cultural links with Arab Christian communities in parts of the Levant, such as Syria. Historical research carried out by Elders and Loosley also suggests that the Christian communities of the Gulf were also closely involved in the pearling industry prior to the coming of Islam to the region.

As part of plans for further study of the plaster, pottery and glass fragments from the sites, ADIAS has sent some samples to Britain for examination. This will permit comparisons to be made with other material from the middle of the First Millennium AD from the Gulf, Mesopotamia and Syria. Help in shipping the samples was provided to ADIAS by the UAE representative office of oil company BP, (formerly British Petroleum), which has supported the work of ADIAS for several years. Over the years since ADIAS was first established, it has benefited substantially from the support extended by the local and foreign oil sector. This latest support will help ADIAS to undertake further scientific research into the results from these two important archaeological sites.


A new look at the Mleisa footprints

During April, our two geological and geomorphological consultants, Professor Graham Evans and Dr. Tony Kirkham, made another visit to Abu Dhabi to continue their studies of the coastline and sabkhas, as part of continuing evaluation of shoreline and sea level changes over the past few thousand years. They took the opportunity to pay a visit to the site at Mleisa, south-east of Ruwais, where some fossil footprints were identified by Daniel Hull and Stephen Rowland last year. They were accompanied by Hull and Rowland, and also by Mubarak al-Mansouri, of ADCO's Jebel Dhanna staff, who first showed us the footprints. According to Evans and Kirkham, the fossilised flood plain on which the footprints are situated is not of Pleistocene date, as was originally suspected, but is a Late Miocene formation, probably five to six million years old. They confirm, however, that the impressions may well be fossil footprints, probably of animals of a similar size to today's elephants. As far as is known, no fossil footprints of this date - or of any other date - have been identified elsewhere in the UAE. ADIAS will now recommend the area to the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, for formal conservation under its Protected Areas programme.

Evans and Kirkham also carried out further studies relating to the evolution of the shorelines during the Holocene period, (the last 10,000 years or so), visiting the Jebel Dhanna area, the Dabb'iya peninsula and its adjacent islands, and Futaisi. They also ventured through the lagoons to the north-east of Abu Dhabi, a trip made possible by the provision of a boat and boatman from the Commission for Environmental Research, CER, of the Emirates Heritage Club.


... And more fossils

More Late Miocene fossils were identified near Ruwais in early April during some fieldwork carried out - in the middle of a sandstorm - by Peter Hellyer, Simon Aspinall and Daniel Hull. Among items collected were a probable metacarpal (foot bone) of an equid (ancestor of a horse) and two large fragments of the jawbone of a fossil crocodile or suid. These are now being examined in London by Peter Whybrow, of the Natural History Museum, who carried out ADCO-sponsored research into Abu Dhabi's Late Miocene fossils in the early 1990s. Also identified was a large fossil leg-bone, too fragile to remove, which may well be of an early elephant, or animal of similar size.

ADIAS has now been assigned responsibility for fossils on the coast and islands, in association with ERWDA, and we will be planning for some further fieldwork next winter, to examine some of the recently identified sites and to make the necessary proposals for protection. This work will be undertaken in association with Peter Whybrow, of London's Natural History Museum, who co-ordinated the research in the Western Region in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Plans for the work were discussed with Whybrow in London in early May, and we now hope that he will be able to lead a short field survey early in 2003. The majority of the fossils recovered by Whybrow and his team during the earlier work have now been returned to Abu Dhabi, and are housed in the ERWDA/ADIAS building at Maqta. These will eventually be used as the nucleus of a scientific reference collection, so that they are available for consultation by visiting specialists. Whybrow has also handed over to ADIAS IT Manager Dr. Mark Beech full details of the collection on disc, as well as a copy of the special Museum website. This will soon be posted on the ADIAS website, to provide visitors with an easily accessible source of information on the UAE's fossil heritage.


ADIAS staff changes

At the beginning of May, Daniel Hull, our Resident Archaeologist, left for England, after completing his seven month contract with ADIAS. He will be replaced on October by Dr. Mark Beech, who is currently ADIAS IT Manager (and Website Manager) and is our senior environmental archaeologist. Mark has been working with ADIAS for many years, and last year was awarded his PhD from Britain's University of York for a thesis studying the fish bones found on archaeological sites in the Gulf, including many of the ADIAS sites. Mark's tasks will include the overseeing of the preparation of final reports on some of the earlier work undertaken by ADIAS, so that they can be brought to publication, and also the regular updating of the ADIAS database and its inclusion in the Abu Dhabi Environmental Database being co-ordinated by ERWDA. He will also be continuing studies into the country's environmental archaeology, with particular reference to molluscs and fish, as well as managing our fieldwork surveys and excavations.


New Publications

Two new publications relating to ADIAS work have appeared in recent months, dealing with the archaeology of the fringes of the sabkha areas, and, more specifically, with the Nestorian monastic settlements on Sir Bani Yas and Marawah. The first, Introduction to the Archaeology of the sabkhat of Abu Dhabi, by ADIAS Executive Director Peter Hellyer, is a chapter in a book on the Sabkha eco-systems of the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent countries, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, of Germany. The book, which has a Foreword by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in his capacity as Deputy Chairman of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, also has chapters by ADIAS associates and consultants Professor Graham Evans and Dr. Tony Kirkham (on the sabkhas themselves), arthropods of the sabkhas (by Dr. Peter Hogarth), fishes of the sabkha areas (by Dr. Mark Beech and others) and on saline wetland reserve management and the birds of sabkhas (by Simon Aspinall). Co-editor of the book is Dr.Benno Boer, formerly of ERWDA and now with UNESCO.

The second publication, Nestorian Christianity in the pre-Islamic UAE and Southeastern Arabia, also by Peter Hellyer, is published in the Journal of Social Affairs, published by the Sociological Association of the UAE and the American University of Sharjah. Several other papers and book chapters relating to ADIAS work, including studies of the evolution of Abu Dhabi's shorelines, are currently in press, with authors including Peter Hellyer, Geoffrey King, Mark Beech, Elizabeth Shepherd, Emily Glover, Daniel Hull, Robert Carter, Graham Evans, Tony Kirkham and Heiko Kallweit. Many will be included in the Proceedings of the April 2001 Emirates Archaeology Conference, while others will appear in a variety of books and overseas academic journals. A chapter on the history and archaeology of Abu al-Abyadh, by Peter Hellyer and Daniel Hull, will also be included in a forthcoming book on the island, to be published by ERWDA. Work is also proceeding on the preparation of an academic report on the ADIAS excavations on Dalma, which is being edited and co-ordinated by Mark Beech and Elizabeth Shepherd, which will appear in the international series of the authoritative British Archaeological Record, BAR.

Moving away from the strictly archaeological, a major paper on the geology of the island of Marawah, by Graham Evans, Tony Kirkham and Rob Carter, is to be published in the journal GEOArabia in July. Reporting on the results of a geological survey of the island undertaken over the last few years, this paper will be the first detailed survey of the geology of any of Abu Dhabi's islands.


Conference Presentations

During April, four papers were delivered by ADIAS staff and associates to two major conferences. Locally, the Conference of the GCC Archaeology and History Society, held in Sharjah, heard papers from Peter Hellyer, on results of recent survey work in North-East Abu Dhabi, and by Daniel Hull, on the Jebel Dhanna sulphur mines. Work in both areas was undertaken with the support of the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, ADCO. The other conference, on the Archaeology of the Middle East, was held in Paris. Papers were delivered by Elizabeth Shepherd and Dr. Robert Carter on the results of our work at the 'Ubaid-related site on Dalma island, and will be published in due course in the Proceedings of the conference.


More news soon!
 

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