Paleolithic

Sites on the
Arabian
Peninsula
Jebel Faya
Jebel Barakah

(200,000-
30,000 BP)
“Out of Africa” Migrations
Sea level 20,000 BP was 120-130 m lower
than today I R A Q
48o 50o 52o 54o 56o 58o

28o N 28o

 Water was
locked in KUWAIT
Kuwait

mountain I R A N

glaciers and 28o 28o

polar ice
caps
Strait of
Hormuz
BAHRAIN
Manama
26o 80 26o

60
SAUDI ARABIA
Doha ARABIAN
QATAR GULF
GULF OF
OMAN

Al Riyadh
Abu Dhabi
24 o Al Ain 24o

20 Depth in meters
UNITED ARAB
EMIRATES
100 km

O M A N
48 o
50 o
52 o
54 o
56o
 Changes in Gulf Sea Level
 Sea levels begin to rise, ca. 8,000 BCE
 “Climatic Optimum”
 Between ca. 8,000 and 3,000 BCE deserts saw higher rainfall
 Moister climate—lakes, wadis—means occupation of desert was possible
Neolithic Sites
 Neolithic Sites
Marawah Island (AD)
Dalma Island (AD)
Jebel Buhais (Sharjah)
Umm az-Zamul (AD)
Akab (dugong site) (UAQ)
Baynunah (camel bone site) (AD)
 Key markers of the Neolithic
 “Arabian bifacial tradition”
o Diverse tool-kit
 Arrowheads, tanged points, foliates, drills
 Similar tools found across Arabia—Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait
– Cultural contact?
o Pressure flaked
o Indicative of hunting
 Ubaid ceramics
o Limited trade with north (pre-urban Mesopotamia)
 Bones of domestic herd animals
o Sheep, goat, cattle
o Mobile herding/hunting communities
 Shell middens
o Diet supplemented by fish/shellfish
Arabian Bifacial Tradition
Arabian Bifacial Tradition
Neolithic Scrapers
 Neolithic Pottery
No local pottery tradition
 Mesopotamian Chronology
 Ubaid 5800-3700 BCE
 Uruk 3800-3200 BCE
o *First Cities
 Jemdet Nasr 3200-3000 BCE
 Early Dynastic Period 3000-2350 BCE
o Sumerian City-States
 Akkadian 2350-2200 BCE
o Sargon
 Neo-Sumerian 2100-2000 BCE
 Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian Periods 2000-1600 BCE
o Hammurabi
 Middle Assyrian 1600-1000 BCE
 Neo-Assyrian 1000-605 BCE
o Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon
 Neo-Babylonian 625-539 BCE
o Nebuchadnezzar
 Neolithic Pottery
No local pottery tradition
Ubaid pottery comes from Mesopotamia
o Evidence of contact via trade
o Did Mesopotamians also
introduce domestic animals?
Marawah
MR1 MR11
SITE
DESCRIPTION
CODE
Neolithic (Late Stone Age) site on a low rocky coastal promontory at the SW end of Marawah.
MR1
This site dates to the Late 6th millennium BC.
Series of mostly Islamic period sites on east/west limestone ridges just to the north and east
MR2
of Ghubba.
Series of Late Islamic period shell middens, mostly pearl oyster, to north and SE of Marawah
MR3
village.
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
MR4
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.
Group of 160 hearths located SW of the village of Ghubba. These appear to be of various
MR9
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.
A group of seven mounds located SW of Ghubba on the NW tip of a limestone ridge. Originally
MR11 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.
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.
Finds from MR1
Why are there so
many projectile
points?
o Defense?
o Battle?
o Hunting?
MR1 C Dates
14
Finds from MR11

Pearl oyster buttons

 MR11

Seven
circular
stone
structures
MR11 Burial
 MR11
Dugong Bones
MR11 C Dates
14
Dalma
Dalma Survey
SITE
DESCRIPTION
CODE
DA1 Late Islamic period Mosque of Muhammad b. Jasim al-Muraykhi, Dalma town.
DA2 Late Islamic period House of Muhammad b. Jasim al-Muraykhi, Dalma town.
DA3 Late Islamic period Al Dawsari mosque (formerly known as the Sa'id Jum'a al-Qubaysi mosque), Dalma town.
DA4 Late Islamic period Al Muhannadi mosque (formerly known as the Sa'id 'Ali al-Qubaysi mosque), Dalma town.
DA5 Islamic period grave, Dalma town.
DA6 Old Dalma settlement, Dalma town.
Islamic graveyard with associated settlement debris, shell middens and pottery scatters, Ghassan al-Ghossain's farm compound, NE of
DA7
Dalma Motel roundabout.
DA8 Islamic graveyard surrounded by walled enclosure, Dalma town.
DA9 Islamic graveyard surrounded by rectangular walled compound, between old Dalma town and the southern peninsula.

DA10 Islamic graves (ca 12 graves) inside the compound of the former Abu Dhabi Women's Federation compound in Dalma town.
Ubaid-related settlement inside the compound of the former Abu Dhabi Women's Federation compound in Dalma town. This site dates
DA11
to the late 6th-early 5th millennium BC.
Continuation of the Ubaid-related site (DA11) outside the compound wall on the neighbouring traffic island. The same area also has
DA12
traces of Islamic graves.
DA13 Late Islamic period settlement on old shoreline NW of the Dalma Motel roundabout.
DA14 Islamic period cistern and enclosure, north eastern outskirts of Dalma town.
DA15 Large Islamic period well known locally as "al-Falaj", west Dalma.
DA16 Late Islamic period village known as al-Biyada, west Dalma.
DA17 Four ?Islamic period graves and pottery scatters, west Dalma.
Sassanian-Early Islamic period stone buildings (now destroyed). This site was excavated by an Iraqi team in 1973. Located north of
DA18
Dalma town.
DA19 Large ?Islamic period spring or well known as "al-Fahahil", with 3-4 Islamic graves nearby. Located on the NW coast of Dalma.

DA20 Islamic period stone scatter, formerly the site of a simple mosque, and pottery scatters, located north of Dalma town.
DA21 ?Islamic period ore mining site located NE of Dalma town.
DA22 Four ?Islamic period wells, known locally as "falaj Hazim" after the nearby wadi Sha'ba Hazim.
DA11 (on grounds of Abu Dhabi
Women’s Association)
 DA11
Post holes indicate circular
structures
2 carbonized (burnt) date
stones provide 14C dates
 Finds from DA11 47 Ubaid sherds

Over 34,000 pieces of flint

102 beads
 Faunal Remains from DA11
Fish
Sheep/goat
Gazelle
Fishers, herders
Jebel Buhais
Buhais 18
 Buhais 18
Over 700 burials, primary and secondary
o Secondary burial evidence of nomadic lifestyle?
Some highly adorned
Unusually high incidence of physical trauma—
cranial/post-cranial fractures
o Many suffered violent death
o Was violence result of protecting nearby water source?
Trephination of 3 skulls
o Early brain surgery
Umm az-Zamul
Akab
 Akab (5 millenium BCE)
th

Fish bones
Pearl oyster fish hooks
Post holes indicate circular architecture
 Akab dugong mound
Intentionally
structured pile of
dugong bones, some
colored with ochre
At least 40 dugongs
 14C date on dugong
bone 5140 ± 55 BP
(3568-3116 BCE). 
 Akab dugong mound
Finds within mound
o Beads
o Knives
o Flakes
o Fishhooks
o Gazelle, sheep/goat bones
 Dugong
Sanctuary?
 Baynunah
Remains of at least
forty 6,000 year old
camels
Associated with flint
arrowheads

Wild ancestor of
today’s domesticated
camel
 Neolithic Society in the UAE
 Economy
o Hunter/herders, fishers
o Limited trade with north
o Beginning of pearling (Buhais; UAQ)
 Religion
o Akab?
o Buhais
 Crafts
o Pottery is imported
o Stone tool production
o Beads
 Society
o Violence at Buhais; protection of important resources
o Lived in rudimentary huts (post holes at Dalma)
o Organized communities
o Mobile? Semi-settled?
 Summers on coast spent fishing, trading; winters inland spent herding
 Coastal sites; interdunal campsites; mountain sites