THE INDIAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, DSO

UMM AN NAR AND THE BRONZE AGE

UAE SST, Gr 9
Reading material

• THE SOCIETY THAT RESIDED IN THE UAE AROUND 2500 BCE IS OFTEN CALLED THE ‘UMM AN-NAR
CULTURE’
• THE UMM AN-NAR CULTURE WAS QUITE UNIQUE, ESPECIALLY FOR THE TIME THEY LIVED IN.
UNLIKE OTHER COMMUNITIES OF THE TIME, THERE WAS A SENSE OF EQUALITY AMONG THE
PEOPLE.
• THIS IS IN CONTRAST TO THE WAY PEOPLE TREATED EACH OTHER IN OTHER SOCIETIES LIKE
MESOPOTAMIA OR EGYPT.
• AROUND 3000 BCE, THE UMM AN-NAR CULTURE PLAYED AN INTEGRAL PART IN THE BRONZE
AGE.
• THE BRONZE AGE WAS DURING THE PERIOD 3000 -1200 BCE. AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, IT WAS
THE TIME WHEN BRONZE WAS USED INCREASINGLY, REPLACING THE NEED FOR STONES FOR
TOOLS AND WEAPONS.
• BRONZE IS A MIXTURE OF COPPER AND OTHER METALS.
• THE AL-HAJAR MOUNTAINS OF OMAN CONTAIN LARGE AMOUNTS OF COPPER, WHICH THE
PEOPLE EVENTUALLY LEARNED TO MINE AND TURN INTO PURE COPPER.
• Mesopotamia, the strongest empire in the area at that time, needed copper to make weapons
and agricultural tools. Since there is no copper in Mesopotamia, people came to the Umm an-Nar
society to trade for it.
• Records from Mesopotamia showed that it traded a lot with the Umm an-Nar people. One text
from just after the Umm an-Nar period records a single shipment of over 18 tonnes (18,000 kg) of
copper. When merchants came to the UAE to trade for copper, they brought beautiful ceramic
vessels, ivory combs, and decorated beads. Examples of those were found in the Umm an-Nar
tombs.
• The Umm an-Nar culture flourished for at least 500 years, from about 2500 – 2000 BCE. In many
ways, the Umm an-Nar culture established some of the basic patterns of life, such as trade and
agriculture, which still exist in the UAE today. Moreover, the Umm an-Nar culture gave an
example of people in society being treated more equally than in other cultures at the same time.