The ADIAS
Occasional Newsletter is edited by Peter
Hellyer & Dr. Mark Beech. Survey,
Fossils, Lectures and Publications - a busy start to the new season
Survey, Fossils, Lectures and Publications - a busy start to the new season With the ADIAS 2003-2004
season now well under way, it's time to brief readers of the Occasional
Newsletter on our plans for the next few months, and to report on the
work undertaken since the summer break. The initial focus over the last
few weeks has been on further work on the Late Miocene fossils collected
near Ruwais during the last ADIAS year and on the carrying out of some
further detailed coastal survey work. Already, important new discoveries
have been made, both in terms of fossils and in terms of identifying
new archaeological sites. At the same time, our outreach programme has
continued, with ADIAS staff and associates giving a number of lectures,
both here and in Oman, while the text of a new book on ADIAS work has
been completed. Printing of this book, scheduled for publication in
December, is now under way, with support from the Abu Dhabi Company
for Onshore Oil Operations, ADCO. Planning is also under way for a further
development of our co-operation with Zayed University. Further details
can be found elsewhere in this issue of the Newsletter. Planning is
also now being finalised for an extensive programme of further fieldwork
early in the New Year, which will, we hope, focus on detailed excavation
of an important site on the island of Marawah and on investigation of
a site in the deep desert, near Umm az-Zamul. Here, as elsewhere, we
will be working in close collaboration with the Environmental Research
and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, with results being incorporated
into the Abu Dhabi Environmental Database. All of this work, of course,
involves extensive expenditure, and we are pleased to acknowledge the
receipt of further sponsorship from TAKREER (for research into fossils
at Ruwais) and from the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations,
ADCO (for publication of a new book). Details are provided elsewhere.
An ADIAS team comprised of
Dr Mark Beech (Senior Resident Archaeologist), Simon Aspinall (Director,
Environmental Studies Unit) and Dr John Stewart (Palaeontologist, Department
of Anthropology, UCL), recently undertook a rapid survey of coastal
areas in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi in collaboration with a team
from the Terrestrial Environment Research Centre (TERC) of the Environmental
Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA). Areas investigated
included the Sila'a peninsulae, where previously-known sites on Ra's
Farda, Ra's Ghumeis and on Ufzai'yyah were re-examined, the Sabkha Matti,
Jebel Barakah and Ruwais. More help from TAKREER The Abu Dhabi Oil Refining
Company, TAKREER, has agreed to provide further sponsorship to ADIAS
late this year and early next year for work related to the Late Miocene
fossil discoveries at Ruwais. The sponsorship, provided in two parts,
is being used to fund the detailed cataloguing and databasing of the
more than 5,000 fossils found at Ruwais and to help fund the preparation
of a special exhibition both of some of the Ruwais fossils and of early
fossil material discovered in the early 1990s by an ADCO-sponsored team
from London's Natural History Museum and Yale University (see separate
story). More work on fossil finds Lectures and Outreach A key aspect of ADIAS work
is the publicising of our activities, through publications, (see separate
story), press coverage and public lectures, so that people both here
in the UAE and elsewhere are informed about our work. So far this autumn,
four lectures have been given on ADIAS-related activities. New links to the ADIAS website
have also been established with the websites of the School of Oriental
and African Studies at London University and of the University of York.
Details are as follows (follow links to ADIAS). These have helped to
prompt a further significant increase in the number of daily accesses
being made to the ADIAS website, further helping to spread information
about our activities in the international academic community.
A delegation from the Abu
Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS) comprising Dr Mark Beech
(Senior Resident Archaeologist) and Karen Cooper (ADIAS Asmin assistant)
visited Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman from the 27-29 September 2003.
During the visit they met with representatives from the Ministry
of National Heritage and Culture, the Natural
History Museum, the Department
of Archaeology at Sultan Qaboos University, and the Bait
Al Zubair Museum. Fruitful discussions were held discussing future
possible collaboration between ADIAS and their respective organisations. Books and Publications
As reported in the last ADIAS
Occasional newsletter (June 2003), a major new book on UAE archaeology
was launched at the annual Seminar for Arabian Studies in London last
July. Entitled Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates, it contains
the collected papers of the 1st International Conference on UAE Archaeology,
held in Abu Dhabi in April 2001, and is edited by Professor Dan Potts,
Dr. Hasan Naboodah and Peter Hellyer. Published by the Zayed Centre
for Heritage and History, part of the Emirates Heritage Club, in association
with Trident Press, the book was launched at a reception at the British
Museum. It contains eight papers by ADIAS staff and associates. During
the reception, sponsored by Trident Press, ADIAS Executive Director
Peter Hellyer gave a short speech on behalf of the publishers and editors,
thanking UAE President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
and Their Highnesses the Supreme Council members and Rulers of the Emirates
for their support for archaeology in the country over the last forty
years, and also thanked Deputy Prime Minister HH Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed
Al Nahyan for his sponsorship of the April 2001 conference and the subsequent
publication of the book. English language copies of the book are now
available to ADIAS sponsors (please contact us if you want one), while
an Arabic language version is now being produced.
More news soon! |
