The first Christian site discovered in the UAE dates to the 7th and 8th centuries CE and has undergone several excavations since the first building was discovered in 1992.
Aerial view of the ruins of the Christian monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island in Abu Dhabi [Credit: Visit Abu Dhabi]
Now, never-before-seen sections of the Monastery are visible to the public, giving an insight into daily life in the monastery.
Later stages of the excavation project, which has been ongoing for several years, unveiled walls and courtyard houses that provided an outline for the site while artefacts such as plaster crosses and ceramic objects proved the existence of the church and the inhabitants’ way of life.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, cabinet member and minister of tolerance, said: “The Sir Bani Yas Church and Monastery sheds light on our cultural history, one that we can be proud of; its existence is proof of the longstanding values of tolerance and acceptance in our lands.
The site of Sir Bani Yas church and monastery [Credit: Abu Dhabi World]
“This further emphasises the importance of cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration, as the site provides evidence of the UAE’s openness to other cultures.”
Due to the significance of the site, conservation has always been a top priority for the Department of Culture & Tourism – Abu Dhabi. Last year, a new sheltering solution was put in place to protect the site and its archaeological remains from environmental threats, minimise physical impact on the remains and offer a better experience for visitors.
The nature-based Sir Bani Yas Island is located in Al Dhafra in the Western Region, and comprises the Arabian Wildlife Park, salt dome hills, wildlife and adventure activities including safari drives, watersports, mountain biking and horse riding. The island is accessible by ferry and visitors must have a reservation at one of the island’s three Anantara resorts.
In the Bronze Age, maritime trade in the Gulf was revolutionised by the invention of boats capable of shipping goods hundreds of miles.
Experimental archaeological reconstruction of a Bronze Age boat [Credit: Antonie Robertson]
About 4,000 years later, academics and university students have launched an ambitious attempt to build a working reconstruction of the type of vessel that, for the first time in history, could sail from what is now Iraq, through the Arabian Gulf, reaching as far as the coastline of India
A lack of physical remains mean little is conclusively known about the structures of the first boats capable of long-distance travel, with the natural materials used to build them having long since disintegrated.
But experts are using a combination of historical sources, including miniature models found in graves and a “shopping list” of items etched into an ancient stone tablet, to recreate an eight-metre-long vessel that they hope will prove seaworthy.
It is hoped that the project, launched in a collaboration between New York University Abu Dhabi and Zayed University, will be completed within a year. Construction is already under way, and it is hoped that it will lead to a greater understanding of a crucial development in human history.
“We are exploring the origins of long-distance trade in the region, which we really saw develop in the Bronze Age in the Gulf and into the Indian Ocean, connecting Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley,” said Eric Staples, assistant professor at Zayed University and co-director of the boat project.
“This was a commercial revolution. It required ships that could actually make the voyage and carry goods there and back. This is about exploring the maritime technology at the time, considering different sets of evidence to solve the puzzle of what a vessel might have looked like.
Robert Parthesius and Eric Staples at NYU Abu Dhabi during the official launch of a Bronze Age Boat Project [Credit: Antonie Robertson]
“Actually building a boat is an excellent way of gaining further information about these vessels, considering the limited evidence we have. You’re forced to confront and analyse the evidence in much greater depth and detail than you otherwise would, and re-examine your assumptions.”
It is believed that the crescent-shaped boats would have been directed with a single steering oar. A sail would have been made out of goat hair or a form of natural matting. Two expert boat builders have been brought in to assist with the project, which has been going on for a year, and about 80 students have already contributed to.
Bitumen, used for waterproofing, reeds and natural wood found in the region are among the other materials that will be used.
It is hoped that by early next year the boat will be ready to be tested in the water, and, if successful, it could even set sail on a long voyage, although its primitive nature means extensive safety measures would have to be in place. International museums have already shown an interest in displaying the completed replica.
“It wouldn’t have been the safest, let’s put it that way,” Dr Staples said. “This is the earliest origins of what you would call long-distance boat technology, so inevitably there were problems. By modern standards, it would be considered dangerous, although we don’t have exact mortality figures.”
The boat project is part of a wider drive to improve understanding of the UAE’s maritime heritage, with the Middle East seen as a crossroads of civilisations for centuries. For thousands of years, the coastline of the country has been a key mercantile route.
Boat builders Sajid Valappil and Abdul Salam show a visitor the techniques used to manufacture a Bronze Age Boat [Credit: Antonie Robertson]
New efforts are under way to learn far more about the UAE’s history by exploring under the sea, said Robert Parthesius, who is also co-director of the boat project.
A course he teaches at NYUAD, Shipwrecks and Seascapes, introduces students to maritime archaeology.
“I think we know the orbits now much better than the ocean,” Dr Parthesius said. “The places that are still to be discovered are underwater. We are looking now at rising sea levels as a big issue. The Gulf faced the same problem 15,000 years ago and a lot of communities that were living on the banks of rivers are now on the sea floor.
“There was a migration that took place, so the biggest discoveries about the culture of this country are still to be made underwater.
“Heritage is an important component of the UAE's national identity. Learning more and getting a richer understanding of the maritime connections of this country will enrich that.”
Further excavations have been carried out at the archaeological site of ed-Dur by the Department of Tourism and Antiquities in Umm Al Qaiwain it has been announced.
Credit: WAM
Alia al-Ghafli, the Director General of the Department, said that discoveries included 15 tombs, settlement remains, bronze statuettes, pottery and jewellery, dating back to the 1st Century AD. Coins in a style derived from the coins of the 4th Century BC Greek emperor Alexander the Great were also found, she said.
Credit: WAM
Credit: WAM
Sometimes called ‘Arabian Alexanders’, such coins circulated widely in the eastern Arabian peninsula around the beginning of the Christian era. The discovery several years ago of a stone mould for making coins at Mleiha, Sharjah, confirmed that some of this coinage was minted in the UAE.
"The excavations project is in line with the strategy of Umm Al Qaiwain's Government to support archaeological exploration across the Emirate," Al Ghafli said. The objective is to learn more about the region’s history through identifying more burial sites and by excavating more material, she added.
More than four decades ago, the Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild. But today, thanks to efforts spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, experts are citing the swell in its numbers as one of the world’s biggest conservation success stories.
There are now an estimated 1,220 wild oryx across the Arabian Peninsula [Credit: Shutterstock]
In the early 1970s, the antelope was considered all but vanished due to hunting and poaching. Now it is not only back from the brink, but in 2011 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified it to “vulnerable” from “endangered,” the first time a species that was once “extinct in the wild” improved in status by three full categories out of six on its Red List of Threatened Species.
There are now an estimated 1,220 wild oryx across the Arabian Peninsula, in addition to between 6,000 and 7,000 in semi-captivity.
Experts at the IUCN have revealed to Arab News that the Arabian oryx could be upgraded to another level on its list within years, to “near-threatened,” thanks to regional breeding programs and reintroduction initiatives in the Kingdom, the UAE and the wider Gulf.
“About 40 years or so ago, the Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild formally, which meant there were none of these animals left in the wild, just those in captivity or in private collections,” said David Mallon, co-chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Antelope Specialist Group.
“Unfortunately, we don’t really have very much detailed information on the past. We’ve just got plenty of anecdotal reports of oryx around, and as far as we know the species was very widespread across the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. In the north it went as far as Iraq and Kuwait, Syria in the northwest and then Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE in the south,” he added.
“But as soon as motor vehicles and modern weapons arrived, the destructive potential of hunting rapidly increased. Before, if you were on a camel and you had a single shot, by the time you had another bullet in the gun the oryx would’ve run off. But when motor vehicles and more modern, reloadable rifles were introduced — you can wear oryx out through exhaustion — hunting became a lot easier.”
Their numbers rapidly declined, and by 1950 the northern population had disappeared.
“This just left the southern population based around the Empty Quarter, southeast Saudi Arabia and the border of the UAE and Oman. Then by the 1960s, it went down and down and down,” Mallon said.
Oryx, which included the World Wildlife Fund and Phoenix Zoo in the US, was set up to establish a herd in captivity to prepare to reintroduce them into the wild.
“They caught a few of them from the southern population in Yemen on the border with Oman and took them back to London Zoo. Then there were a couple donated from the ruler of Saudi Arabia at the time, and they were taken to Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, which has a similar desert climate, and they built up this world herd,” Mallon said, adding that this provided hope for the desert animal.
The first reintroduction of 10 animals was in 1982 at the Omani Central Desert and Coastal Hills in the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary.
It was subsequently extended to Saudi Arabia at the Mahazat Al-Sayd Protected Area.
Releases in this fenced area began in 1990.
Credit: Arab News
In 1995, a secondary release site was established in Uruq Bani Ma’arid in the southern part of the Kingdom.
In 1997, said Mallon, oryx were released in three sites in northern Israel, and were introduced to the UAE a few years later in the oryx reserve in Abu Dhabi.
Other sites have since been established, and reintroductions in “semi-captive” sites — vast fenced areas to protect them from poachers — have also been made in Jordan and Bahrain, while reintroductions in Kuwait, Iraq and Syria have been proposed, according to the IUCN.
Successful population growth and releases, in addition to the estimated millions of dollars being spent across the Gulf annually on conservation, have driven the population numbers to current levels.
Mallon said it is a major feat to have brought the Arabian oryx back from the brink of extinction, and one that the IUCN hopes will be repeated for other threatened species.
“The Arabian oryx was ‘extinct’ on the Red List, then they became ‘critically endangered.’ Once the population increased they moved to ‘endangered,’ and then moved to a level where they could be called ‘vulnerable.’ It’s a really good conservation story. The next target they have to get to is ‘near-threatened,’ and that’s not far off,” he added.
The IUCN formally categorizes numbers of a species that are at reproductive age.
“We only count the mature individuals, so we don’t count the young ones. We have about 1,220 now, including the young ones, and we’d say about 850 are mature,” Mallon said.
“For the oryx to move to the ‘near-threatened’ category, we’d need to get figures to about 1,400 of these animals, so about half as many again. Considering where we were and where we are now, this is an achievable feat.”
The main populations of the species today are in Saudi Arabia, where there are about 600 in the wild, and the UAE, where there are more than 400 by official numbers, although Mallon said there may be significantly more.
Many more are in semi-captivity.
There are about 110 in the wild in Israel.
Despite a promising start in Oman, few of the species remain in the country due to poaching.
The IUCN estimates that there are just 10 left in the wild in Oman, with a couple of hundred more in semi-captivity.
Mallon said there are few conservation stories as successful as the Arabian oryx, and it was the foresight of Saudi and Emirati rulers, and bodies that established large breeding sites across the Arab world, that have saved the animal from extinction.
Coordination between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — such as the General Secretariat for the Conservation of the Arabian Oryx, which was established in 2001 as a landmark regional initiative aimed at coordinating and unifying conservation efforts in the Arabian Peninsula — has also helped.
“This helps to vary the genetics as much as possible, and ensures the longevity of the species,” said Mallon.
“There has been a huge amount of genetic sampling of all the herds to establish which ones are the most diverse. They’re genetically well-managed, and the animals are very carefully looked after.”
Conservation of endangered animals is a growing trend in the Kingdom. In the study “Conservation in Saudi Arabia: Moving from Strategy to Practice,” published in the Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences in 2018, authors noted that there are “marked conservation successes” in the Kingdom of not only the Arabian oryx, but two other endangered species: The sand gazelle and the Arabian gazelle.
The report added that the Saudi Wildlife Authority, established in 1986, has introduced several measures, with more on the way, to deter poachers and other factors that negatively affect populations of endangered species.
But Mallon said challenges for the Arabian oryx remain: “What’s needed is to continue with the captive breeding efforts to continue breeding animals, to continue the existing reintroduction sites and maintaining regional efforts and collaboration across the Arabian Peninsula. This is vital to maximize genetic diversity and reduce the risk of inbreeding.”
He added: “A massive Arabia Peninsula-wide education program on not shooting and hunting, and confiscation of weapons and a massive license system, would also help.”
Mallon said: “Without conservation, these species probably wouldn’t survive. Yet the Arabian oryx is an important part of Arabian biodiversity. It’s the one animal that’s adapted to hyper-arid deserts.”
He added: “It’s an exemplar to a species that has adapted to these conditions, which will be very useful in the future in terms of climate change. It also has its natural role, and serves as a flagship for the desert ecosystem, and also has huge cultural value. So it’s almost the duty of people to preserve it.”
Mallon said efforts thus far deserve worldwide commendation.
“It has been a huge conservation success story of its time. At the time, it was an absolute flagship project. It was a real exemplar of what can be done,” he added.
“A crucial part of conservation success stories is to have government support, funding and long-term commitment. That’s what we’ve seen in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider GCC.”
A French archaeological mission has concluded its excavation project in Umm Al Quwain for the current season with the completion of test trenches in eight new archaeological sites.
Credit: WAM
The work has been undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Antiquities of Umm Al Quwain. The mission’s excavations resulted in the discovery of a number of artefacts.
Alia Al Ghafli, Director-General of the Department of Tourism and Antiquities of Umm Al Quwain, said that the new excavations are an excellent addition to Umm Al Quwain’s archaeological map.
Samples have been sent to the laboratory of the Sorbonne University in France for Carbon-14 analysis, to accurately date these sites.
Rania Hussain Qanouma, Director of the Antiquities Section at the Department, explained that the sites date back to the Neolithic period. Stone items as well as fragments of pottery from the Ubaid civilisation of Mesopotamia (Iraq) are among the finds.
The picturesque mountains of Fujairah may swarm with rock climbers and campers today but thousands of years ago, they were the canvas for the people who lived there.
Petroglyphs on the rock faces of Fujairah [Credit: Wam]
Archaeological studies on the rock art — or petroglyphs — that pepper the emirate’s mountainside have been under way in the UAE for 60 years, despite quarrying and construction threatening their existence.
According to the Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Authority, FTAA, more than 31 petroglyph sites have been found in the emirate, including sites in Wadi Saham, Hassat al-Risoom, Wadi ah-Shanah, and Wadi al-Hayl.
Some appear to be rough scratchings on a rock surface, others depict animals such as camels and leopards and, in some places, stick figures of humans can also be seen — this is Fujairah’s open-air art gallery believed to date back to the Bronze Age, more than 3,000 years ago.
Archaeologist Dr Michele Ziolkowski, pictured in 2010, points to one of the many petrogylphs she has discovered and mapped many in Wadi Al Hayl near Fujariah city [Credit: Jeff Topping/The National]
Petroglyphs are difficult to date without scientific analysis of the rocks on which they are found but some motifs have direct parallels with excavated artefacts from the Iron Age.
Among the motifs discovered is a collective dance scene that provides an insight into the region’s historical development, including agricultural practices.
Much of the work on the petroglyphs was carried out over the past 25 years by UAE resident Dr Michele Ziolkowski, who personally recorded more than 500 individual petroglyphs across Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Hatta.
A petroglyph depicting an animal in Fujairah [Credit: Wam]
Dr Ziolkowski came to the UAE in 1993 as an undergraduate student from the University of Sydney and first worked at the Fujairah site on a metallurgy survey. She has since earned her PhD, writing her thesis on the archaeology of Fujairah, and publishing many papers in academic journals about the UAE’s petroglyphs.
She was in a race against time to find and document the rock art before it is lost to quarrying, mining and construction work. In 2010, Dr Ziolkowski recorded 119 petroglyphs in Wadi Daftah before many were destroyed by road construction.
The FTAA is now working to preserve these sites for future generations to learn about the country’s history.
Dr Michele Ziolkowski holds a medallion with the shape of this petroglyph engraved on it in Wadi Al Hayl near Fujariah City [Credit: Jeff Topping/The National]
"We are keen on ensuring that these important sites are preserved and maintained, so that residents and tourists are able to view this rock art," Saeed Al Samahi, director-general of the FTAA, told Wam.
"There are 11 petroglyph sites that have undergone preservation work. Other sites are undergoing preservation to ensure they are well-maintained so future generations can have access to their country’s history. A large number of carvings and rock paintings have been discovered that they are distinctive to the history of the UAE, providing insight into ancient civilisations and the environment in which they lived. We strive to maintain an up-to-date inventory of the petroglyphs,” he said.
The few surviving mountain tribes maintain that the markings serve a much simpler purpose than scientists may believe.
Mohammed Al Shehhi, a member of the prominent Al Shuhouh tribe, previously told The National that he uses several of the petroglyphs as landmarks to find his own ancestral home in the RAK mountains whenever he and his family hike there.
"They are mostly wusum [tribal markings] where areas belonging to particular tribes were marked in a certain way as a message to other mountain tribes," said Mr Shehhi, who was 72 years old at the time. It is simple. It is not a coincidence they are often found near burial sites or tombs. They are clearly connected to the tribes. Experts always try to complicate it. If a camel was drawn on a rock, then most likely the meaning of the drawing was a camel, perhaps a beloved pet."
Archaeological discoveries throughout the UAE have consistently revealed a rich history stretching back thousands of years. Given the challenging climate, the original inhabitants of the region often lived in one place then moved to another when the climate changed or new resources were discovered. But an exception to this pattern has been found in Abu Dhabi’s second city of Al Ain.
The Great Tomb at Hili, Al Ain, built around 3000 BC [Credit: David Millar]
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi’s (DCT Abu Dhabi) archaeologists have determined that a unique array of resources and the ingenuity of the region’s ancestors ensured the Al Ain oases became a major centre from the Bronze Age to the modern day.As one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited places, Al Ain with its oases and sites was occupied in all the major periods of the UAE’s history. The date, size and extent of Al Ain’s archaeological sites from this time are unparalleled in our current knowledge of the UAE and broader region.
Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain, the site of ancient tombs, was home to some of the first civilisations in the Bronze and Iron ages [Credit: Lauren Lancaster/The National]
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said, “The Founder Father of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, recognised the importance of understanding this ancient past and encouraged fieldwork in Al Ain from the 1960s onwards.The discoveries our team of archaeologists are uncovering are fascinating and reveal incredible details about our ancestors, their lifestyles, their resilience and their ingenuity. These details uncovered about our history and earliest culture are both educational and inspiring to all – especially our younger generations as they build their knowledge and appreciation of their Emirati ancestors.”
Excavations at Hili 8 exposing 4500 year old archaeological layers [Credit: TCA Abu Dhabi]
Al Ain provided a true landscape of opportunity. People were able to not only grow crops in the fields but they began mining copper and stones from the nearby mountains. Copper was the oil of the Bronze Age: much prized and needed by expanding economies throughout the known ancient world. Copper was mined and processed in Al Ain, then transported to the coast as ingots on the trade routes that had been established during the earlier Neolithic period. With their knowledge of the sea, these Bronze Age entrepreneurs established a trading port on Umm An Nar Island, right next to the modern city of Abu Dhabi. It was to become a hub for international trade, continuing the tradition that their Neolithic ancestors had began at coastal settlements like Marawah thousands of years earlier, and which Abu Dhabi still is today.
Two of the Bronze Age tombs located near Hili 8. The people who lived at Hili 8 were buried collectively in these tombs [Credit: TCA Abu Dhabi]
As the economy expanded, people constructed fortified mudbrick towers, using the clay that was in abundance around the area. Several of these buildings have been excavated by DCT Abu Dhabi archaeologists and visiting international teams. The towers contain numerous rooms with wells at their centre. They also constructed large above ground tombs that can still be seen.
From one of these towers, called Hili 8, evidence for the earliest agriculture in the country, dating back nearly 5,000 years ago, was discovered by French archaeologists in the 1980s.Continuing work by DCT Abu Dhabi at Hili 8 is revealing further evidence for this remarkable early agricultural village.
The Bronze Age inhabitants of Al Ain, also used the copper from the nearby mountains to make weapons and agricultural tools that provided safety and prosperity. Some of these amazing artifacts were found in the discoveries made at Qattara in Al Ain. Excavations of a tomb here, dating to between 4,000 and 3,000 years ago, has revealed dozens of metal weapons that attest to ingenuity and technologically mastery of the time.
The earliest known village in the UAE has been discovered by archaeologists in Abu Dhabi. Experts claimed the village dates back to the New Stone Age, before 8,000 years.
Hypothetical reconstruction of Marawah 8,000 years ago [Credit: Image Nation - Abu Dhabi]
Excavations by archaeologists from the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) on the island of Marawah have revealed that this is the earliest village discovered in the country.
According to new radiocarbon tests, the buildings found are aged nearly 8,000 years, a time known as the Neolithic period or the New Stone Age.
Officials said the houses uncovered at the site are remarkably well-preserved, and the houses were believed to be used for several hundred years.
The houses consist of several rooms and outdoor spaces for the keeping of animals and the preparation of food.
In total, there are 10 houses in the village, which reveal remarkable similarities in design and construction, explained the experts.
The archaeologists are currently attempting to digitally recreate the village, in order to understand how it appeared nearly 8,000 years ago.
The remains of homes on Marawah [Credit: Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi]
Experts pointed out that although the findings from this time have been discovered elsewhere in the UAE, until now no architecture was found.
Moreover, archaeologists said that it had been assumed by researchers that the inhabitants of the UAE at the time were only nomadic pastoralists - people who moved around with their sheep and goats. But the discoveries at Marawah suggest otherwise.
Experts believe the evidence indicates that on this island, people began to settle on one place and built permanent structures.
Elsewhere in the ancient Middle East, this process was linked to the development of agriculture and at Marawah, it is believed an entirely novel process led to the construction of the village.
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said the expertise of the team of archaeologists continues to reap rewards.
"Their work is allowing us to deep-dive into the emirate's history, piecing together an intriguing and extraordinary story of the earliest known inhabitants of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi."
The Marawah vase was found earlier and can be seen on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi [Credit: Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi]
He pointed out that the exciting discoveries serve to showcase Abu Dhabi's earliest years, and help accurately map out the country's development, by seeing just how far it has come.
"As we continue to invest in these archeological excavations, we will no doubt further understand our ancestors and our land, and share these findings with the world," added Al Mubarak.
At Marawah, experts believe it was the bountiful resources of the Arabian Gulf, rather than growing crops, that likely convinced people to settle down and live in one place. In this way, the village can be seen as the first example of the modern towns and cities.
These ancient people realised that the sea provided a rich source of food and economic opportunities that were unique to this region, according to archaeologists.
Experts suggest that the ancient inhabitants of Marawah realised that the Gulf was an ancient 'superhighway,' which connected them to their neighbours. Following this, they developed sophisticated "shipping technology" to conduct trade and business.
The importance of this trade has been revealed by the treasure trove of artifacts discovered at the site.
One ceramic vessel found at Marawah, now on display at Louvre Abu Dhabi, is the earliest example of a complete imported trade vessel so far found in the UAE.
