
Location of Dalma (Source: ADIAS)
Introduction
1992 Survey
Site DA11
Links
Press
Publications
Introduction
Dalma is an island located in the western region of Abu Dhabi emirate,
about 80kms east of the Qatar peninsula, and . The island is about 9
kms from north to south (not taking into account its modern landfilled
peninsula to the south) and is 5kms from east to west. Its central hills
rise to a maximum elevation of 98 m above sea-level. Dalma is a salt-dome
island with a central hilly interior of pre-Cambrian age. The island
has a modern population of around 6-7000 people. Dalma is known in the
past to have had a permanent population which was made possible by the
presence of wells near Dalma town, the main settlement located at the
southern tip of the island. Around 200 wells are reputed to have once
existed there, with freshwater being supplied to Abu Dhabi island until
the 1950s.

Location of archaeological
sites on Dalma (Source: ADIAS)
1992 Survey
ADIAS carried out an initial archaeological survey of Dalma island in
1992 (King 1998). A total of more than 20 archaeological
sites were identified on the island, ranging in time from the Neolithic
(Late Stone Age) to important
early twentieth century buildings. A summary of the sites is provided
as follows:
SITE
CODE |
DESCRIPTION |
WEBSITE
LINK |
DA1 |
Late
Islamic period Mosque of Muhammad b. Jasim al-Muraykhi, Dalma town. |
|
DA2 |
Late
Islamic period House of Muhammad b. Jasim al-Muraykhi, Dalma town. |
To
read an article written by G.R.D. King on this house click
here (pdf - 1.54 MB) |
DA3 |
Late
Islamic period Al Dawsari mosque (formerly known as the Sa'id Jum'a
al-Qubaysi mosque), Dalma town. |
|
DA4 |
Late
Islamic period Al Muhannadi mosque (formerly known as the Sa'id
'Ali al-Qubaysi mosque), Dalma town. |
|
DA5 |
Islamic
period grave, Dalma town. |
|
DA6 |
Old
Dalma settlement, Dalma town. |
|
DA7 |
Islamic
graveyard with associated settlement debris, shell middens and pottery
scatters, Ghassan al-Ghossain's farm compound, NE of Dalma Motel
roundabout. |
|
DA8 |
Islamic
graveyard surrounded by walled enclosure, Dalma town. |
|
DA9 |
Islamic
graveyard surrounded by rectangular walled compound, between old
Dalma town and the southern peninsula. |
|
DA10 |
Islamic
graves (ca 12 graves) inside the compound of the former Abu Dhabi
Women's Federation compound in Dalma town. |
|
DA11 |
Ubaid-related
settlement inside the compound of the former Abu Dhabi Women's Federation
compound in Dalma town. This site dates to the late 6th-early 5th
millennium BC. |
|
DA12 |
Continuation
of the Ubaid-related site (DA11) outside the compound wall on the
neighbouring traffic island. The same area also has traces of Islamic
graves. |
|
DA13 |
Late
Islamic period settlement on old shoreline NW of the Dalma Motel
roundabout. |
|
DA14 |
Islamic
period cistern and enclosure, north eastern outskirts of Dalma town. |
|
DA15 |
Large
Islamic period well known locally as "al-Falaj", west
Dalma. |
|
DA16 |
Late
Islamic period village known as al-Biyada, west Dalma. |
|
DA17 |
Four
?Islamic period graves and pottery scatters, west Dalma. |
|
DA18 |
Sassanian-Early
Islamic period stone buildings (now destroyed). This site was excavated
by an Iraqi team in 1973. Located north of Dalma town. |
|
DA19 |
Large
?Islamic period spring or well known as "al-Fahahil",
with 3-4 Islamic graves nearby. Located on the NW coast of Dalma. |
|
DA20 |
Islamic
period stone scatter, formerly the site of a simple mosque, and
pottery scatters, located north of Dalma town. |
|
DA21 |
?Islamic
period ore mining site located NE of Dalma town. |
|
DA22 |
Four
?Islamic period wells, known locally as "falaj Hazim"
after the nearby wadi Sha'ba Hazim. |
|
Site DA11
The earliest traces of human settlement discovered on Dalma island were
identified at site DA11, located within the former Abu Dhabi Women's
Federation compound in Dalma town. Excavations were carried out in 1993-4
by an ADIAS team led by Kate Flavin and Elizabeth Popescu (nee Shepherd).
Preliminary results of this work were published in a paper in the Proceedings
of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (Flavin
and Shepherd 1994). In 1998 further excavations were carried out
by Dr Mark Beech and Dr Joseph Elders (Beech
and Elders 1998, 1999; Beech
et al. 2002; Elders and Beech 1998).
A summary of the work at site DA11 is provided by Shepherd
Popescu (2003).
Work is currently underway on completion of the final publication on
the excavations at site DA11. This will be in a volume edited by Elizabeth
Popescu and Dr Mark Beech (Popescu and
Beech, forthcoming).

Excavating
and sampling the shell and fish bone layers in Trench 2 - 1994 season
(site DA11)

One of the houses
in Trench 1 - 1998 season (site DA11)

One
of the circular structures at Dalma -1998 season (Photograph by Dr Mark
Beech)

7000 year old charred
datestones from Dalma (Photograph by Dr Mark Beech)
This work provided important information about one of the region's earliest
known settlements, as well as the earliest evidence for the consumption
of dates in SE Arabia. The two charred datestones recovered from the
1993-4 excavations were radiocarbon dated to the late 6th-early 5th
millennium BC (Beech and Shepherd 2001;
Beech 2002; Beech
et al. 2002). See C14 samples AA-32031 and AA-32032.

More information on the Dalma datestones is provided on these following
web pages within this site:
www.adias-uae.com/dates
Archaeobotanical Evidence
for Early Date Consumption in the Arabian Gulf
www.adias-uae.com/dates/dates.htm
Other important finds included
sherds of 'Ubaid pottery, painted and plain plaster vessel fragments,
finely flaked stone tools, and a variety of shell and stone beads.

Ubaid pottery sherds
(site DA11)

Painted plaster vessel
fragments (site DA11)
The plaster vessel fragments
from Dalma have proved to be extremely interesting. Samples of the plaster
vessels have already been analysed in collaboration with the Department
of Scientific Research at the British Museum (Joyner
2001).

Flints collected
from Dalma (Photograph by ADIAS)

Various shell and
stone beads from Dalma (Photograph by ADIAS)
A remarkable find from the
site was a 7000
year old limestone mortar (Quicktime required). Click on this previous
link to see an animated film of this object via the
external website, the Virtual Museum on the http://www.uaeinteract.com/ website, produced by Trident Press.
The animal bones from site DA11 are being studied by Dr Mark Beech (Beech
2000, 2002, 2004),
and Emily Glover, a research fellow at the Natural History Museum in
London is studying the marine mollusca from the site.
Links (internal)
Date stones in Archaeology
Dalma plaster vessel analysis
Gallery
with more pictures from Dalma
Radiocarbon
dates from Dalma
Related Links (external)
Archaic Mesopotamia
(Source: Images from
History, University of Alabama at Birmingham)
British Archaeological
Expedition to Kuwait
Dalma
(Source: Uaeinteract.com)
Dalma
island (Source: Arabian
Wildlife)
Eridu
phase (Tell Abu Shahrain) of the Ubaid culture (Source: The
History of the Ancient Near East - Electronic Compendium)
Ubaid
culture (Source: The
History of the Ancient Near East - Electronic Compendium)
Ubaid
(Source: Uaeinteract.com)
Press
16 May 1998 -
Oldest houses in UAE discovered: possibly 6,000 years old (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
21 May 1998 -
New book on archaeology of three Abu Dhabi islands (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
22 March 1999 -
Gulf's earliest date stones found on Dalma (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
23 May
1999 -
Trade links with Iraq go back to 7,000 years (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
19 June 1999 -
Excavations in UAE to be highlighted at UK seminar (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
29 November 1999 -
Earliest evidence of consumption of dugongs in southeast Arabia
(Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
9 November 2000 - British
university student wins prize for dissertation on 7000 year old shells
collected from ADIAS excavations on Dalma island (Source:
ADIAS Press release)
11
March 2002 -
New evidence for the UAE's oldest ancient village on Dalma Island (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
14
March 2002 -
Important archaeological discoveries at Dalma island (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
Publications
Beech, M. 1999a. Dalma
archaeological site yields Arabia's oldest date stones. Tribulus (Journal
of the Emirates Natural History Group) 9.1: 18.
[ to download this note in Acrobat .pdf format click here (103 Kb) ] .
Beech, M. 2000. Preliminary
report on the faunal remains from an 'Ubaid settlement on Dalma island,
United Arab Emirates. In: M. Mashkour, A.M. Choyke, H. Buitenhuis and
F. Poplin (eds.), Archaeozoology of the Near East IV: Volume B - Proceedings
of the fourth international symposium on the archaeozoology of southwestern
Asia and adjacent areas. ARC Publicatie 32. Groningen, Netherlands.
pp.68-78.
[ to download the contents page of
this volume in Acrobat .pdf format click here (655 Kb) - to download this article click here (169 Kb).]
Beech, M. 2002. Fishing
in the ‘Ubaid: a Review of Fish-bone Assemblages from Early Prehistoric
Coastal Settlements in the Arabian Gulf. Journal of Oman Studies 12:
25-40.
[ to download this article in Acrobat
.pdf format click
here (1.5 MB) ] .
Beech, M. 2003. Archaeobotanical Evidence for Early Date Consumption
in the Arabian Gulf. Pages 11-31. In: ECSSR (ed), The Date Palm - From
Traditional Resource to Green Wealth. Emirates Center for Strategic
Studies and Research, Abu Dhabi. Paperback edition ISBN 9948-00-550-3.
[ to read an online HTML version of this article
click here ]
.
Beech, M.J. 2004.
In the Land of the Ichthyophagi: Modelling fish exploitation in the
Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman from the 5th millennium BC to the Late
Islamic period. Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey Monograph 1
- British Archaeological Reports International Series S1217. ArchaeoPress,
Oxford. ISBN 1841715778. xxi + 293 pages; 126 figures, maps, plans,
drawings, photographs; 232 tables; 8 Appendices of data, remains and
sites.
[ to purchase a copy of this book click
here ].
Beech, M. and J. Elders.
1998. UAE's oldest houses discovered. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates
Natural History Group) 8.1: 31.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf
format click here (129 Kb) ] .
Beech, M. and J. Elders.
1999. An 'Ubaid-related settlement on Dalma Island, United Arab Emirates.
Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies 4: 17-21.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf
format click here (518 Kb) ] .
Beech, M., J. Elders and
E. Shepherd. 2000. Reconsidering the 'Ubaid of the Southern Gulf:
new results from excavations on Dalma Island, U.A.E. Proceedings of
the Seminar for Arabian Studies 30: 41-47.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (737 Kb) ] .
Beech, M., W. Higgs and P. Iddison. 2002. Date stones in Archaeology.
ADIAS website publication.
Beech, M. and E. Shepherd. 2001. Archaeobotanical evidence for early
date consumption on Dalma Island, United Arab Emirates. Antiquity 75:
83-9
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click
here (1.6 MB) ] .
Elders,
J. and M. Beech. 1998. Oldest houses in UAE discovered. Emirates News,
Tuesday, May 12, 1998. p.5.
Joyner, L. 2001. Ubaid plaster analysis. ADIAS website publication.
Flavin, K. and E. Shepherd.
1994. Fishing in the Gulf: Preliminary investigations at an Ubaid
site, Dalma (U.A.E.). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies
24: 115-134.
[ to download this article in Acrobat
.pdf format click here (1.2 MB) ] .
Hellyer, P. 1993c. New discoveries
on Dalma and Sir Bani Yas. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural
History Group) 3.2: 16.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf
format click here (126 Kb) ] .
King, G.R.D. 1998.
Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey: Season I - An Archaeological
Survey of Sir Bani Yas, Dalma and Marawah: Season One. Trident Press:
London.
[ To purchase this book (ISBN 1-900724-14-6) visit Trident
Press ]
King, G.R.D. (with
architectural drawings by D. Connolly). 2004 . Bayt al-Muraykhî:
a later Islamic pearl merchant's house at Dalmâ, Abu Dhabi Emirate.
Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 14.1: 3-8.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (1.54 MB) ] .
King,
G.R.D. (with ground-plans and elevational drawings by David Connolly).
2004. The Traditional Mosques of Dalma, Abu Dhabi Emirate. Tribulus
(Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 14.2: 23-31.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click
here (536 Kb) ] .
Salah, M.G. 1996. Geology and hydrocarbon potential
of Dalma Island, offshore Abu Dhabi. Journal of Petroleum Geology 19
(2): ***-***.
Shepherd-Popescu,
E. and M.J. Beech (eds.). forthcoming. Excavations at an Ubaid-related
site on Dalma Island. Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey Monograph
Series No. 2. British Archaeological Reports International Series. ArchaeoPress,
Oxford.
Shepherd
Popescu, E. 2003. The
Neolithic Settlement Sites on the Islands of Dalma and Marawah. In:
D.T. Potts, H. Naboodah and P. Hellyer (eds.), Proceedings of the First
International Conference on the Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates
(Abu Dhabi, 15-18 April 2001). Trident Press, London. pp. 45-54.
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