"Sheikh Zayed had displayed his interest in
the country's archaeology long before the establishment of ADIAS,"
says ADIAS Executive Director, Peter Hellyer.
Studies of the
archaeology and heritage of the United Arab Emirates owed much to
the personal interest of the late President, HH Sheikh Zayed bin
Sultan Al Nahyan, an obituary posted on the Abu Dhabi Islands
Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, website (www.adias-uae.com) says. Sheikh
Zayed was a keen observer of the first archaeological excavations
ever to take place in the UAE, at the island of Umm al-Nar, back in
1959, and personally led the Danish archaeological team then working
there to the inland oasis of Al Ain, to show them the great Bronze
Age tombs on Jebel Hafit and in the Al Ain Oasis."
Later, he
personally supported Danish and other archaeological expeditions to
Al Ain, and was responsible for the establishment of the country's
first archaeological museum, again in Al Ain." "Becoming Ruler of
Abu Dhabi in 1966, and then the founding father of the United Arab
Emirates, Sheikh Zayed devoted the last forty years to the
development of his country, and to the use of its oil revenues in
the service of its people.
Despite the increasing demands of
Government, however, he retained his deep and abiding interest in
the study of the country's past." "He followed eagerly, for example,
the work undertaken by palaeontologists on the 6-8 million year old
Late Miocene fauna of Abu Dhabi's Western Region during the late
1980s and early 1990s, meeting with them to be briefed on their
work."
In 1991, he requested the carrying out of the first
detailed archaeological survey of three of the main islands of the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Sir Bani Yas, Dalma and Marawah. He then
ordered the formal establishment of the Abu Dhabi Islands
Archaeological Survey, ADIAS.
Hellyer added: "In the years
that followed Sheikh Zayed continued to follow closely the results
of ADIAS work... including the discovery of the pre-Islamic
Christian monastery on Sir Bani Yas ... and, more recently, the
discovery of major Late Miocene fossil finds in the Ruwais area,
including two elephant tusks and other finds."
"One of the
most-quoted phrases of HH Sheikh Zayed was that 'a people that does
not know its past cannot deal with the present or face the
challenges of the future.' "He believed, deeply, that it was
important that the people of the United Arab Emirates knew about
their past, cherished it and learned lessons from it."
"Archaeology in the United Arab Emirates owes him a great
debt. Without his consistent interest in and support for the
investigation of, and preservation of, the cultural heritage of the
country, including its archaeology, much that is now known would
have been lost, or would not have been discovered, and the country
itself would have been poorer for the lack of it," said
Hellyer.
On December 2004, ADIAS and the Abu Dhabi Police
Department successfully recovered ancient DNA from a human skeleton
excavated by archeologists from Abu Dhabi's western island of
Marawah. It is believed to be the oldest skeleton ever found in the
country that dating back to almost 7500 years.
Details of
this scientific breakthrough were by Colonel. Ahemad Hassen Al
Awadi, Director of the forensic science laboratory and forensic
pathology unit at the Abu Dhabi Police Headquters, Peter Hellyer,
Executive director of the Abu Dhabi Islands Archeological survey,
Dr. Mark Beech, Senior Resident Archeologist, and Dr.Saeed Shawgi,
Head of the forensic pathology unit.
Radiocarbon dating as
well as associated funds makes the skeleton the earliest evidence
found of the presence of man in the Emirates.
It was possible
to determine that the skeleton was a male from the DNA Profile,
using short tandem repeat based identification system, said Dr.
Awdi. Pottery dating back to 6000-7500 years also found next to the
skeleton also helped in determining the age of the
skeleton.
The skeleton was found during excavations directed
by Dr Mark Beech for ADIAS in 2004 on Abu Dhabi's western island of
Marawah. During work at Site MR-ll, a series of stone buildings were
identified. In one of them, there was a human skeleton buried on a
stone platform.
The skeleton was not well enough preserved,
however, for the ADIAS team to determine whether it was of a man or
a woman.
However, thanks to the expertise of the Forensic
Science Laboratory of the Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters, the sex of
the skeleton has been determined by the recovery of ancient DNA.
Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, is the chemical at the centre of
the cells of living things, which control the structure and purpose
of each cell and carries the genetic information during
reproduction.
Radiocarbon dating, as well as associated
finds, demonstrates that the skeleton dates to around 7500 years
ago. This makes the skeleton, and the building in which it was
found, the earliest evidence yet found of the presence of Man in the
Emirates.
Among parts of the skeleton that were preserved
were several teeth, and three of these have now been examined by
Col. Ahmad Hassan AI-Awadi, Director of the Forensic Science
Laboratory and the Forensic Pathology Unit at Abu Dhabi Police
Headquarters. Although the ancient DNA was not well preserved,
using the latest forensic science techniques, the Forensic
Laboratory was able to determine that the skeleton was a male from
its DNA profile. Preliminary studies suggest that the male
individual was between approximately 20-40 years in age. Further
research on the skeleton is being continued by the Abu Dhabi Police
forensic scientists, while ADIAS plans a further season of
archaeological excavations at the site in this year.
The
ADIAS work on Marawah is carried out in association with the
Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, which
is responsible for the conservation of Marawah and adjacent islands,
as well as the surrounding seas, as part of the Marawah Marine
Protected Area.
Meanwhile, British Petroleum, BP is helping
ADIAS on the studies of the geology and archaeology of the United
Arab Emirates. The help is in the form of assistance for the Abu
Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, in its research into two
distinct aspects of Abu Dhabi's heritage - research into the geology
of the island of Balghelam, north-east of Abu Dhabi, and a study
programme on Neolithic (Late Stone Age) flint tools from the western
island of Dalma.
Archaeological excavations on Balghelam,
carried out with the permission of the island's owner, Presidential
Court Chamberlain Sheikh Surour bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, have shown
that the island was occupied as much as four thousand years ago,
perhaps by traders passing down the Gulf from Bahrain. Balghelam is
close inshore, but, like many of Abu Dhabi's islands, is divided
from the mainland by a shallow channel.
Last year two
geologists undertaking research for ADIAS collected rock samples
from the island, which are now being dated at Britain's Southampton
University.
This will help scientists to date the evolution
of the shorelines of the islands and of nearby coastal areas of Abu
Dhabi over the past few thousand years, adding valuable data to
knowledge of the pattern of human settlement in the area.
The results from the analysis of the rock samples will be
included in a publication being prepared by ADIAS on the archaeology
of Balghelam.
Other excavations by ADIAS on the western
island of Dalma have identified one of the earliest human
settlements known in the United Arab Emirates. It was occupied
between 6500 - 7500 years ago, or the Neolithic period.
The
inhabitants of the Dalma site were trading by sea with Mesopotamia
(present-day Iraq), and depended for their food on shellfish, fish,
turtles and dugongs, as well as on domestic animals like sheep and
goats. In their hunting and fishing, and in processing their food,
they depended on flint (stone) tools, and several thousand tools and
other flint fragments have been recovered from the site.
ADIAS is now preparing a major publication on the Dalma
site, which will include cataloguing and analysis of the stone
tools. This work is being carried out by ADIAS associate, Dr Heiko
Kallweit, a leading expert on Arabian stone tools from the Neolithic
period, who is based in Freiburg, Germany.
BP helped
ADIAS carry out these two important pieces of research by arranging
for the shipping of the rock samples to Britain and the Neolithic
stone tools to Germany. According to David Dalton, General Manager
of BP Abu Dhabi: "BP has a history of nearly 70 years of involvement
with Abu Dhabi, and has supported scientific research here for
decades.
Bodies like ADIAS are making important
contributions to knowledge of the geology and heritage of the United
Arab Emirates, and BP is pleased to be able to support their
efforts."
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