Empty Quarter but still full of history

posted on 21/09/2006: 81 views

Weekend dune bashers would not expect to splash their four-wheel drive vehicles through great expanses of water while chugging through the barren deserts of Abu Dhabi's interior. But the latest archaeological surveys from the Empty Quarter sand dunes are uncovering an alternative history of the emirate, exposing ancient civilisations amid apparently inhospitable terrain.



While the new discoveries are opening a window into Arabia's past, they also serve as a potent reminder of the influence climate change can have upon humanity, according to the UAE's relic hunters. "It's one of the most exciting things about archaeological work; searching in the desert for a lost civilisation,” says Dr Mark Beech, head of the cultural landscapes division for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.



"It's the stuff of myth and legend. And, although it looks inhospitable and as though there is not going to be much there, this shows that there are still important sites waiting to be discovered.” The new sites were found in the Umm Az Zamul region, a barren stretch deep inside Abu Dhabi that borders Saudi Arabia and Oman, where few people – other than camel herders, oil exploiters and archaeologists – dare to tread.



An environmental research team spotted scatterings of stone flints in October 2003 and reported the discovery to Abu Dhabi's archaeology chiefs. Subsequent investigations by Dr Beech and other survey team members revealed that the site, known as Khor Al Manahil, was steeped in history.



"We've already found more than 3,000 tools, but there are clearly a lot more,” says Richard Cuttler, a senior project manager for Birmingham Archaeology, at the University of Birmingham, in England, who assisted the survey. "We collected many in the first season, and went back to the same place the next year, and there were still so many more to collect. You think you have picked up all of them, and then you go back and the wind has moved the sand around, and there are just as many on the ground again.”



STONE AGE ARSENAL: The haul includes flint arrowheads and other sharp-pointed weapons, together with the tools needed to manufacture a Stone Age arsenal, says Cuttler. Team members believe they have unique finds among their collection, with a crescent-shaped flint suitable for smoothing the shafts of wooden arrows being dubbed "the wing scraper”.



"Just because we found lots of arrowheads doesn't mean that the people who used them were necessarily war-like,” says Dr Beech .Of course, they will have done some hunting, but hunting was just part of what they did. They had domesticated animals as well, such as sheep, goats and cattle. The weapons we have found could have been for personal defence, but they also could have a more symbolic meaning.”



"Somebody walking around with a flash set of arrows could have been showing them off as a status symbol.” The site has now been formally dated to a time period between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago, during South Arabia's Neolithic period when the region's nomadic inhabitants grazed animals.



A nearby site called Kharimat Khor Al Manahil yielded "more unusual” finds, according to Dr Beech, with three collapsed stone structures peeking out above the surface of a limestone plain encircled by tall sand dunes.



The circular limestone structures were initially believed to be dwellings, but excavations revealed their square interiors were likely to have formed the burial chambers of ancient tribespeople, says Cuttler, who presented the findings to the British Museum, London, in July.



While the graves had been robbed of their contents by tomb raiders of intervening years, Dr Beech says the three elaborate graves could indicate their Stone Age builders were part of a wider Arabian community.



SOPHISTICATED CIVILISATION: "As far as we know, this site is unique within the UAE, although there are a number in Saudi Arabia that are similar to this,” he says. "The sites in Saudi are in a similar environment that make me suspect it was part of a wider cultural tradition. The problem is, we have very little to go on. Very few of the other sites have been properly excavated and dating them has proven difficult.”



The large number of weapons, the burial chambers, the charred remains of ancient hearths and limestone mortars found across the two sites, indicates a civilisation of some sophistication, says Dr Beech, speculating about Abu Dhabi's ancient interior.



"There was vegetation and pasture for animals. The stone mortars indicate the occupants were grinding food and processing raw plants. We know from the graves that they buried their dead and took part in a ceremonial ritual.



"We don't know if the people were inhabiting the site or whether they visited seasonally, but we suspect it was seasonal. We also found two beads made from marine shells, which means the people there had some connection with the coast. Some have speculated that the people here spent some of the years living off mostly marine sources, and then came inland at other times to take advantage of what the land had to offer.”



The evidence points to a time when the region's climate was very different to the current, searing weather experienced in Abu Dhabi's interior, says Dr Beech. Animal grazing, cooking and other trappings of tribal life would have been unlikely without adequate rainfall and vegetation.



The latest research from climatologists has revealed that the monsoon rains that make Oman's Dhofar mountain range so verdant used to blow across greater swathes of the Arabian peninsula.

"Now, it is an inhospitable desert, but during the period of between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago there were lakes, water and vegetation – places for people to take their animals,” says Dr Beech.



"This is something that astonishes modern Emiratis, because they consider the area to be the back of beyond. But what is interesting is that there are references to this in the Quran. The Holy Book says that once there were rivers flowing in the deserts of Arabia.”



CHANGING CLIMES: While allowing archaeologists a peek into Arabia's history, the finds at the two sites demonstrate how a currently barren desert once provided life's basic necessities to members of Arabia's Stone Age civilisation, says Cuttler.



"It shows how the climate moves people about, how changes in weather patterns move people to different areas,” he says. "In Arabia, this environmental change has been a driving force.” According to Dr Beech, the importance of environmental fluctuations remain as important today, with climate change likely to affect modern Gulf dwellers as much as it did to our ancient ancestors. (Emirates Today)

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