ARCHAEOLOGY REVIEW

Near Al Ain, according to press reports, the Department of Antiquities and Tourism of the Diwan of the Ruler’s Representative in Abu Dhabi’s Eastern Region continued work at the Iron Age village and falaj site near (Qarn) Bida Bint Saud, confirming the dating earlier ascribed to it.

Two brief surveys took place under the aegis of the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS. One involved a further examination of surface evidence of occupation on the island of Qarnein, where a site from the early 1st Millennium BC has been recorded (Tribulus 7:2 pp. 25-26). The presence of archaeological remains on Qarnein was first noted during an ENHG trip to the island in 1989. A previously unnoticed low wall was identified close to the former site of a breeding colony of Socotra Cormorants Phalacrocorax nigrogularis, with one possible interpretation being that it was built to facilitate collection of cormorant guano. The presence of ëmanganese purple’ pottery from the 17th-18th Century was also noted, confirming multi-period usage of the main site.
The second survey, preliminary in nature, was carried out on Abu Al Abyadh, largest of Abu Dhabi’s islands, to prepare for further work during the 1998-1999 winter season. A number of sites were identified, all coastal middens and settlements or camp sites, with a range of pottery ascribed to the Late Islamic and recent periods.

Finally, as reported elsewhere, (p. 25-27), a Late Stone Age and Late Islamic occupation site was identified south of the Liwa by former UK Ambassador Anthony Harris.

While fieldwork has been sparse, knowledge of local archaeology has moved forward as a result of the presentation of papers at academic symposia. The annual Seminar for Arabian Studies in London had presentations on excavations at the late pre-Islamic/early and mid-Islamic tell at Kush, in Ras Al Khaimah, by Derek Kennet, archaeological adviser to the National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah, on the presence of Third Millennium BC pottery from the Indus Valley in the UAE and Oman, by Sophie Mery, of the French Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques, on the analysis of tin-bronzes from Third Millennium BC sites, particularly in Sharjah and Fujairah, by Lloyd Weeks of the University of Sydney, and on the origins of an Iron Age bowl from Ad Door, in Umm Al Qaiwain, by Carl Phillips, of London University’s Institute of Archaeology. There was also an anthropological presentation on the Shihuh by William Lancaster, the first time for many years that new information about local anthropology has been released.

Among other papers presented at symposia was one by Mark Beech of ADIAS and the University of York at the International Congress of Archaeo-Zoology in Victoria, Canada, which examined evidence from the Late Stone Age settlement at Dalma and from Kush, Ras Al Khaimah on ancient fishing strategies.
New publications included three papers in the May 1998 issue of the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. One, by Michelle Ziolkowski of Sydney University, was an analysis of petroglyphs in Fujairah’s Wadi al-Hayl, accompanied by comparative information on petroglyphs from elsewhere in the UAE. While there is still much work to be done on UAE petroglyphs, Ziolkowski’s paper represents an important record of this overlooked aspect of the UAE’s archaeological, and artistic, heritage. Two other papers, both by Dr. Peter Magee, also of Sydney, dealt with the chronology and regional context of late prehistoric incised arrowheads from the UAE and adjacent parts of Oman and new evidence, from Muwailah, near Sharjah Airport, of the initial appearance of iron in the area.