Dalma

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Location of Dalma (Source: ADIAS)
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)
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.
click here

To read an article written by G.R.D..King about this mosque click here (536 Kb)
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.
click here

To read an article written by G.R.D..King about this mosque click here (536 Kb)
DA4 Late Islamic period Al Muhannadi mosque (formerly known as the Sa'id 'Ali al-Qubaysi mosque), Dalma town.
click here

To read an article written by G.R.D..King about this mosque click here (536 Kb)
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.
For more details
click here
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).

Dalma - Excavating and sampling the shell and fish bone layers in Trench 2 - 1994 season, site DA11  (Photograph by ADIAS)
Excavating and sampling the shell and fish bone layers in Trench 2 - 1994 season (site DA11)
 

Dalma - One of the houses in Trench 1 - 1998 season, site DA11  (Photograph by Dr Mark Beech)
One of the houses in Trench 1 - 1998 season (site DA11)


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


7000 year old charred datestones from site DA11, Dalma (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.

Dalma - Ubaid pottery sherds, site DA11  (Photograph by ADIAS)
Ubaid pottery sherds (site DA11)
 

Dalma - Painted plaster vessel fragments, site DA11  (Photograph by ADIAS)
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 the surface of site DA11 (Photograph by ADIAS)
Flints collected from Dalma (Photograph by ADIAS)


Various shell and stone beads from Dalma, site DA11 (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) ]
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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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