| ........ |
Marawah
|
|
Location of Marawah
(Source: ADIAS)
Introduction
Survey
Excavation
Excavations
at MR11
Images
Links
Press
Publications
Introduction
The island of Merawah lies
around 100 kilometres to the west of the city of Abu Dhabi, and is located
just to the north of the Khor al Bazm. To the west is the small island
of Al Fiyah, to the southeast the island of Junaina, and to the east
the island of Abu al Abyad. It is around 15 km north of the main coastline
and about eight km north west of Junaina. Marawah is around 13 kilometres
from east–west and a maximum of 5.5 kilometres north–south.
The structure of the island is formed from relict Pleistocene limestone
platforms linked by Holocene (recent) sand and beach deposits and intervening
patches of sabkha (salt flats) (Evans et al.
2002).
Mapping of archaeological
sites on Marawah - 1st ADIAS season, 1992 (Source: ADIAS)
ADIAS carried out a preliminary
survey of the archeological sites on the island in 1992 (King
1998). This identified a total of 13 major sites ranging in date
from the Late Stone Age to Late Islamic period. A summary of the sites
is provided as follows:
| SITE
CODE |
DESCRIPTION |
WEBSITE
LINK |
| MR1 |
Neolithic
(Late Stone Age) site on a low rocky coastal promontory at the SW
end of Marawah. This site dates to the Late 6th millennium BC. |
To see some of the projectile points collected from the surface
of this site click
here. |
| MR2 |
Series
of mostly Islamic period sites on east/west limestone ridges just
to the north and east of Ghubba. |
|
| MR3 |
Series
of Late Islamic period shell middens, mostly pearl oyster, to north
and SE of Marawah village. |
|
| MR4 |
Ghubba
village, which includes 14 Late Islamic period shell middens near
the shore and an interesting group of traditional buildings (a wooden
courtyard house MR4.8, a wooden mosque MR4.9, a boat house MR4.10,
and a wooden building used to store fishing nets MR4.11). |
|
| MR5 |
Late
Islamic period mosque less than 1km east of the village of Liffa.
Built of beach-rock. |
|
| MR6 |
Group
of four cairns on west coast of Marawah. |
|
| MR7 |
Islamic
period cemetery with ca 40 burials. Collapsed cairn and stone circle
nearby. |
|
| MR8 |
Six
?Late Islamic period wells located about 1km west of the village
of Ghubba. |
|
| MR9 |
Group
of 160 hearths located SW of the village of Ghubba. These appear
to be of various dates. Radiocarbon dates indicate 1=Bronze age,
3= Iron age and 1=Sasanian. |
|
| MR10 |
Late
Islamic period midden on the NW of Marawah on a small promontory
north of Liffiya. |
|
| MR11 |
A group of seven mounds located SW of Ghubba on the NW tip of a
limestone ridge. Originally believed to be of Pre-Islamic date,
it is now known from recent excavations and radiocarbon dating that
the site dates to the mid 6th millennium BC. |
To
see some pictures of the recent excavations at the site click
here
|
| MR12 |
A
group of seven ?Pre-Islamic period cairns in a line along a ridge
running south of MR11. |
|
| MR13 |
Islamic
period graveyard with about 100 burials to the north of Ghubba village. |
|
Survey
More recent surveys during the late 1990's and since 2000 have added
more sites to this total. Most of the survey work in the 1990's was
carried out by Salvatore Garfi and Jakub Czastka.
The most recent survey of the island was carried out during April 2002
by Dr Mark Beech, ADIAS Senior Resident Archaeologist, and Ingrid Barcelo,
a former ADIAS employee, who now works for the the Terrestrial Environment
Research Centre (TERC) in the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development
Agency (ERWDA) in Abu Dhabi. This survey checked the GPS co-ordinates
of all the known archaeological sites on the island for the ADIAS sites
database.
Mapping of archaeological
sites on Marawah - April 2002 (Source: ADIAS)
Excavation
A number of archaeological
excavations have been carried out on Marawah. These are listed as follows:
1994
MR1 - late 6th/early 5th mill BC settlement, small evaluation trench,
Jakub Czastka.
1994
MR4 - Hexaplex kuesterianus midden in Ghubba village, Jakub Czastka
and Alex Wasse.
1997 (11 March - 7 April)
MR6.3 - Burial cairn with the remains of an articulated human burial,
excavated by Jodie Benton, Soren Blau and Nadia Iacono.
1998 (4 - 27 March)
MR6.2 - remains of a lime burning hearth.
MR6.4 - remains of a circular stone feature approximately 1.90cm in
diameter and 90cm high. The feature contained a small ceramic vessel
and weathered fragments of a human cranium.
MR12.1 - One of eleven stone cairns located along a limestone ridge
c.200m southwest of the town of Ghubba. The cairn was exposed as a low,
oval shaped structure approximately 55cm high and 2m in diameter. Inside
the cairn highly fragmented remains of two human inhumations were encountered.
The remains are incomplete and in very poor condition.
1999 (2 - 31 March)
MR6 - pair of Late Pre-Islamic lime kilns, excavated by Nadia Iacono
and Graham Wilson.
2003
MR11 - two sondages were excavated by Dr Joseph Elders and John Martin
in two of the mounds at MR11. Whilst Dr Elders excavated in area A,
on the low mound with traces of a building, originally believed to be
a church, John Martin excavated some 200 metres or so to the NW in Area
B, where there were traces of further stone buildings.
2004
MR11 - Dr Mark Beech directed excavations at this important Neolithic
settlement located in the SW part of Marawah. Further details are provided
below.
Excavations
at MR11
In
early April 2004 ADIAS completed its second season of excavations at
MR11, located in the south-western corner of the island. Excavations
were directed by ADIAS Senior Resident Archaeologist, Dr Mark Beech,
and the team included: Richard Cuttler and Derek Moscrop (Birmingham
Archaeology, UK), Dr Heiko Kallweit (Freiburg, Germany), and John Martin
(Carlisle, UK).
The site, formerly believed to be a "church", has in fact
turned out to be one of the best preserved examples of a neolithic house
ever excavated in the United Arab Emirates(!). Radiocarbon dates confirm
that the site dates back to the mid 6th millennium BC.
For more information about the recent
work at site MR11:
Read the ADIAS
May 2004 Newsletter
Visit the site
MR11 web page.
Read the following
news articles:
Anon. 2004. Houses
dating to 5000 BC discovered in UAE. Current
World Archaeology magazine, no.3 (issued January 2004). [
to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (433 Kb) ] .
Anon.
2004. Abu
Dhabi Discovery (Source: Archaeology
- A Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America - Newsbriefs
- Volume 57 Number 5, September/October 2004)
Images
7000 year-old
house at site MR11 on Marawah island |
7000 year-old
house at site MR11 on Marawah island |
7000
year-old flint spear and arrowhead from site MR11 on Marawah island
|
|
The
results of the two radiocarbon dates from site MR11 on Marawah
island
|
Photograph
of arrowheads from site MR1
View a 7000 year
old Late Stone Age flint arrowhead (Quicktime required) from site MR1 on Marawah island (via the external website, the Virtual Museum on the http://www.uaeinteract.com/ website, produced by Trident Press).
Visit a further Gallery
of pictures from Marawah
Links
Ashraf
Saad Al Cibahy, Manager Profile (Source: MPA
News)
Mangrove
on Marawah (Source: Arabian
WIldlife)
Marawah -
Marawah
archaeology (Source: Uaeinteract.com)
Marawah
Marine Protected Area (Source: ERWDA)
Pictures from the 2004 excavation
season at MR11 (Source: ADIAS website)
Radiocarbon
dates from Marawah (Source: ADIAS website)
Press
12 March 1998
New
excavations begin on Marawah (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
21 May 1998
New
book on archaeology of three Abu Dhabi islands (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
2 May 2000
4,000
year old fireplaces on Abu Dhabi's islands (Source:
www.uaeinteract.com)
13 August 2001
History Comes Home - With Help from
Emirates (ADIAS press release)
11 June 2003
ADIAS
completes mapping Abu Dhabi treasure island (Source: Gulf
News)
7000
year old houses on Marawah (in arabic) (Source: Al
Ittihad)
(download jpeg version)
7000 year old houses on Marawah
(in arabic) (Source: Al Khaleej)
7000 year old houses on Marawah
(in arabic) (Source: Al Wahda)
6 January 2004
Stone Age homes found in the Gulf (Source: News.Scotsman.com)
Stone
Age homes found in the Gulf (Source: Irish
Examiner)
Stone
Age homes found in the Gulf (Source: Ireland
On-line)
Remains of Late Stone Age houses found on Emirates island - by Rawya
Rageh - Associated Press Writer, 364 words, 17:21, Associated Press
Newswires, English, (c) 2004. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of Stone Age houses going
back 7,000 years on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates,
an expert said Tuesday. The foundations of three dwellings were found
on Marawah island, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the UAE capital,
Abu Dhabi, about nine months ago. The site also yielded a flint spearhead
about 9 centimeters (3 inches) long, a flint arrowhead and a grinding
stick, said Mark Beech, the senior resident archaeologist of the Abu
Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey. Beech said the team suspected there
were more house remains to be found. "These structures are amazing
in terms of historic importance. They are the best and most complete
structures found in the whole (Gulf) region," Beech said. Less
well-preserved remains of houses have been found in Kuwait and Qatar.
Samples examined at Britain's University of Glasgow showed the houses
date to 6,5000-7,000 years ago, which is about 2,000 years before the
earliest Pharaoh in Egypt. "People have settled in that area and
were carrying out domestic activities," Beech said. Other sites
at Marawah island have produced pieces of Ubaid pottery. As this was
produced in southern Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, it shows that Marawah's
settlers were involved in maritime trade. The houses belong to what
is called the Arabian Neolithic Era, which corresponds to the Late Stone
Age. They have walls that are half a meter thick and built of local
stone. They are rectangular and oval in shape, Beech said. "We
have found sites from different periods (on Marawah), starting from
the Late Stone Age until the pre-oil era," including sites belonging
to the Bronze Age (3,150-1,200 BC), the Iron Age (1,200-586) and the
Islamic period (7th-18th century), Beech said. He said the archaeologists
will excavate further on the island beginning in March. Marawah is about
13 kilometers (8 miles) from east to west, and nearly 5.5 kilometers
(3 miles) from north to south.
7 January 2004
7,000-year-old
housing units found in Marawah Island (Source: Archeonet
Archeologisch Nieuws - Dutch website)
7,000-year-old houses
found in the Gulf (Source: Stone
Pages)
Boffins'
7000-year-old find (Source: Glasgow
Evening Times Online)
Stone
Age settlement found on Gulf island (Source: The
Scotsman)
8 January 2004
Glasgow
newspaper reports Abu Dhabi archaeological finds (Source: WAM)
11 January 2004
Audio News from The Archaeology
Channel / Archaeologica:
Week of 5 - 11 January 2004
This features the news story "Ancient Dwellings Discovered in United
Arab Emirates"
N.B. this is an audio file. Click on your choice of media player and
download speed:
Windows
Media 56k version - Windows
Media 300k version
Real
Player 56k version - Real
Player 300k version
For other archaeology news in audio click
here.
29
June 2004
Marawah excavations find Abu Dhabi's oldest inhabitant (Source:
Emirates
News Agency - WAM)
30
June 2004
Earliest
inhabitant of Abu Dhabi discovered - for the full story click
here [download jpeg
version] (Source: Al Ittihad)
First inhabitant of Abu Dhabi
discovered on Marawah island (Source: Al
Bayan)
Abu Dhabi's first inhabitant
discovered on Marawah island (Source: Al
Khaleej)
Excavations
unearth oldest inhabitant of Abu Dhabi [download jpeg
version] (Source: Gulf
News)
Marawah excavations find
Abu Dhabi's oldest inhabitant (Source: Gulf
Today)
Remains
of oldest inhabitant of Abu Dhabi found [download jpeg
version] (Source: Khaleej
Times)
Marawah
excavations find Abu Dhabi's oldest inhabitant (Source: Uaeinteract.com)
A
look into the past (Source: Uaeinteract.com)
Ältester
Bewohner Abu Dhabis in 7000 Jahre alter Siedlung entdeckt (Source:
Web.de -
Wissenschaft - Archäologie)
18 November 2004
News
story about the discovery of the 7500 year old skeleton on Marawah island
(Source: Asharq Al-Awsat - a pan-Arab
newspaper based in London)
20
December 2004
Local
Press coverage:
Remains
of 7,500-year-old man found (Source: Khaleej
Times)
International
Press coverage:
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: Advertiser,
Australia)
7500-year-old body unearthed (Source: The
Australian, Australia)
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: Brisbane
Courier Mail, Australia)
Remains
of 7,500-yr old man found in UAE (Source: The
Daily Star, Bangladesh)
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: Daily
Telegraph, Australia)
Remains
of 7,500-Year-Old Man Found in UAE (Source: Free
Internet Press, NY)
Remains
of 7,500-Year-Old Man Found in UAE (Source: India
Daily, India)
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: Melbourne
Herald Sun, Australia)
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: The
Mercury, Australia)
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: NEWS.com.au,
Australia)
Remains
of 7,500-Year-Old Man Found in UAE (Source: Reuters,
UK)
Remains
of 7,500-Year-Old Man Found in UAE (Source: Reuters,
NY)
7500-year-old
body unearthed (Source: South
Australia Advertiser, Australia)
7500-Year-Old
Man Found (Source: Tiscali
News, UK)
Remains
of 7,500-Year-Old Man Found in UAE
(Source:
Yahoo News)
Seated from left to right at the end of the table: Dr Saeid M.E.Shawgi
(Head of Forensic Pathology Unit, General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police),
Dr Mark Beech (Senior Resident Archaeologist, Abu Dhabi Islands
Archaeological Survey, ADIAS), Lt. Col. Ahmad Hassan Al-Awadhi
(Director of the Forensic Science Laboratory, General Directorate of
Abu Dhabi Police), Peter Hellyer (Executive Director, Abu Dhabi
Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS)
ADIAS held a press
conference together with the Forensic Science Laboratory at Abu
Dhabi Police Headquarters in Abu Dhabi from 10-11.30 a.m. The following
press release was issued:
Forensic
Science Laboratory of Abu Dhabi Police identifies the gender (Source:
WAM, Emirates Press Agency)
7500 year old house discovered at site MR11 on Marawah island
(Photograph: ADIAS). |
|
ca 7000 year old pottery vessel discovered at site MR11 on Marawah
island (Photograph: ADIAS). |
The earliest
inhabitant of Abu Dhabi - The human skeleton was placed on a stone
platform at the southern end of the room (Photograph: ADIAS).
|
|
The earliest
inhabitant of Abu Dhabi - Close-up detail of the human skeleton
(Photograph: ADIAS). |
21
December 2004
Local
Press coverage:
UAE's oldest skeleton found - in arabic (Source: Al
Bayan)
Scientist's recover DNA from skeleton - in arabic (Source: Al
Ittihad)
(Source: Al
Khaleej)
(Source: Al Watan)
Gender
of oldest man identified - also download jpeg
version (Source: Gulf
Today)
Scientists
recover DNA from skeleton - also download jpeg
version (Source: Khaleej
Times)
UAE's
oldest skeleton found - also download jpeg
version (Source: Gulf News)
Forensic
Science Laboratory of Abu Dhabi Police identifies the gender (Source:
UAEinteract.com)
International Press coverage:
Remains
of 7,500-year-old man found in UAE (Source: ABC
Online, Australia)
Archaeologists
find 'first man in UAE' (Source: CNN,
GA, USA)
Archaeologists
find 'first man in UAE' (Source: CNN
International, GA, USA)
Hallan
restos hombre de 7 500 años en Emiratos Arabes Unidos (Source:
Granma Internacional Digital, Cuba)
7,500-year-old
man’s remains found in UAE (Source: Gulf
Times, Qatar)
UAE
archaeologists find 7,500-yr-old skeleton (Source: Hindustan
Times, India)
Remains
of 7,500-year-old man 'found in UAE' (Source: New
Zealand Herald, New Zealand)
UAE
uncovers 7500-year-old man's skeleton (Source: People's
Daily Online, China)
7,500-year-old
skeleton found (Source: The
Scotsman, UK)
7,500-year-old
remains of man found in Abu Dhabi (Source: The
Times of Oman)
7,500-Year-Old
Human Remains Found (Source: Xtra
News, New Zealand)
22
December 2004
Remains
of 7,500-year-old man found in UAE (Source: StonePages.com
- Archaeo News)
Sedem tisoc let
star Arabec (Source: Svarog.org,
Slovenia)
23
December 2004
7,500-year-old
man's remains found (Source: Star
of Mysore, India).
25
December 2004
Scientists
recover DNA from skeleton in Abu Dhabi (Source: Abu
Dhabi Police website)
16
January 2005
New
evidence of ancient boat mooring sites [
download jpeg version]
(Source: Khaleej
Times)
New
evidence of ancient boat mooring sites (Source: UAEinteract.com)
3
February 2005
Finds offer valuable info
on Neolithic (Source: Arab
Times)
Ancient
human skeletons, pots found in Abu Dhabi islands (Source: Kuwait
Times)
8
February 2005
Excavation
unearths oldest archaeological site in UAE (also download jpeg
version) (Source: Khaleej
Times)
Excavation
unearths oldest archaeological site in UAE (Source: Iranian
Cultural Heritage News Agency, CHN)
9
February 2005
Excavation
unearths oldest archaeological site in UAE (Source: UAEinteract.com)
10
April 2005
Dugongs
and sea turtles in the UAE 'under threat' (Source: Khaleej
Times)
1 May 2005
Marawah
Island - The UAE's First Civilisation (Source: Al
Shindagha no.64,
May-June 2005)
Anon. 2004. Houses dating to 5000 BC discovered
in UAE. Current World Archaeology
magazine, no.3 (issued January 2004).
[
to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (433 Kb) ] .
Anon.
2004. Abu
Dhabi Discovery (Source: Archaeology
- A Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America - Newsbriefs
- Volume 57 Number 5, September/October 2004)
Beech, M. 2003. The diet of Osprey Pandion haliaetus on Marawah
island, Abu Dhabi emirate, UAE. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 13.1: 22-25.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format
click here (330 Kb) ] .
Beech M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop,
H. Kallweit & J. Martin. 2005. New evidence for the Neolithic settlement
of Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of
the Seminar for Arabian Studies 35: 37-56.
[ to download this article
in Acrobat .pdf format click here (2.57 MB) ] .
Beech, M. and N. Al Shaiba.
2004. Intertidal Archaeology on Marawah Island: New Evidence for Ancient
Boat Mooring Sites. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History
Group) 14.2: 8-16.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (362 Kb) ] .
Evans, G., A. Kirkham and R.A. Carter. 2002. Quaternary Development
of the United Arab Emirates Coast: New Evidence from Marawah Island,
Abu Dhabi. GeoArabia 7(3): 441-458.
[ to
download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click
here (1.1 MB) ] .
Garfi, S. 1998. A Late Islamic site on Merawah.
Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 8.1: 31.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (129 Kb) ] .
Hellyer, P. (ed). 1990.
The
Natural History of Merawah Island. with contributions by T.D. Adams,
J.N.B. Brown, P. Hellyer and E.A. and M. Pitts. Bulletin of the Emirates
Natural History Group 42: 2-20.
Hellyer, P. 1993a. Neolithic flints
from Merawah. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group)
3.1: 20.
[ to download this article in Acrobat
.pdf format click here (1.59 MB) ] .
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 ]
Forthcoming
Beech, M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop, H. Kallweit and
J. Martin. in prep. New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah
island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In: P. Hellyer and M. Ziolkowski
(eds.). 2nd Annual Symposium on Recent Archaeological Work in the Emirates.
Zayed Centre for Heritage and History.
home
|
