Wherever you travel in the UAE, you will see physical features - mountains, gravel plains, sand dunes, coastal sabkhas, lagoons, oases — of widely differing age. Scholars who have studied the UAE’s desert, for example, have long stressed the fact that many of the most prominent features visible today, whether dune fields or wadi sediments, are products of events that took place in the remote past. Yet for anyone interested in the history of the country, it is important to realise that not all of these features are contemporary - some were formed long before others, some are recent, in geological terms, others pre-date human settlement in the region by millions of years. What may today appear as a clusterno coast at all, but a slightly elevated shelf overlooking the lower-lying plain Imagine, therefore, that what is today the entire western coast of the UAE was no coast at all, but a slightly elevated shelf overlooking the lower-lying plain Imagine, therefore, that what is today the entire western coast of the UAE was The last half million years have witnessed no fewer than six major periods of glaciation. During these periods, each of which was c.45-70,000 years long, global sea levels fell by up to 130 metres as vast amounts of the oceans’ waters were drawn into the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. When the last glaciation was at its peak, around 18,000 years ago, a now extinct river, fed primarily by the Tigris, Euphrates and Karun rivers, flowed from what is today southern Iraq, through a waterless basin, and emptied directly into the Arabian Sea at the Straits of Hormuz. A second river, now vanished, drained the plains of Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter (Rub al-Khali) and flowed through the Sabkha Matti, just west of the UAE port of Jebel Dhanna.An ancient river once flowedto the north, as far as the eye could see. The islands offshore of Abu Dhabi did not exist. Rather, they were raised hills that stood higher than the surrounding countryside, itself dominated by sand dunes. There were no lagoons at Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain or Ra’s al-Khaimah. Only the east coast, Fujairah and the Sharjah enclave of Kalba, Khor Fakkan and Dibba, was a maritime province at that time, although here too the shoreline would have lain further east than it does today.Finely retouched arrowheads are Age in the UAE.truly nomadic existence, but with the exception of some fairly solid houses made of beach rock (Ar. farush) in Marawah, there is little evidence of permanent architecture. Given the climate, however, palm-frond houses, similar to the ‘arish of the recent past, were probably far more comfortable and practical. Palm-frond houses or ‘arish areA bifacially retouched, tangedBones of the Socotra cormorant sites located near the coast.Arabian oryx.possibly used to weigh down the lower part of the tent covering. Shell beads, of the sort found at Jebel Buhais, also point to the possibility of another axis of contact — towards the north. Similar sites have been found in many parts of the Arabian desert, from Yemen in the south to the Hijaz in the north. The fact that sites such as KHM0035 have been found deep in the desert suggests that during the Climatic Optimum, when there was more rainfall than there is today, the desert may not have been quite as forbidding and seasonal pasturage for herds may have drawn herders to this region for several months of the year. The possibility that seasonal lakes formed in the interdunal troughs during this wetter phase of the mid-Holocene would also help to explain the presence of human settlement in this area. Sweet water is available in the Umm al-Zumul area and game, such as gazelle, oryx, wild camel, hares, houbara bustard and the spiny-tailed agamid (Ar. dhub), was probably sufficient to keep the visitors supplied with fresh meat during their desert sojourn. not be underestimated.above: A painted jar ofdeveloped in the UAE. What makes this pottery so significant is the fact that it was not locally made. The pottery found in the UAE from this period is usually a greenish-buff colour, often over-fired, and decorated with geometric motifs using a glassy, black, manganese-based paint. In all cases, where the sherds have been analysed, it is clear that the pots from which these fragments came were imported from southern Iraq. Stylistically, they belong to an era in Mesopotamian history known as the al-‘Ubaid (or more simply, Ubaid) period. Many scholars have speculated about just why Ubaid-type pottery occurs on coastal sites in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Although the answer is not completely certain, it seems likely that Mesopotamian sailors visited these regions seasonally, perhaps to trade for something they desired from the local inhabitants. Pottery, an innovation that must have seemed extraordinary to the herders of the UAE, may have been exchanged for pearls, beads, mother-of- pearl or other commodities. Whatever the case may be, one interesting point about this exchange is that it did not lead to the emergence of a local pottery industry. After the period of contact with Ubaid Mesopotamia, it would still be several thousand years before a local tradition of pottery production was developed in the UAE.Hundreds of individuals werein the UAE.1e appearance of monumental tombsto a burial chamber in the centre.about the territorial rights of the deceased and/or of their living descendants. tombs are highly visible. They stand above the ground and can be seen fromPrehistoric tombs are located near Jebel Buhais.there are some copper sources in the mountains to the north of Mosul, in n this period. Judging by the small quantities of copper found in Hafit tombs,Excavations at Wadi Hilo.Copper mine at Wadi Hilo.Unfortunately, only one settlement, Hili 8 near Al Ain, has been dated to theValley found in Hili North Tomb A.seem unlikely because there is, in fact, another area that produced pottery in very similar shapes, with nearly identical decorations, and where pottery had been manufactured since about 6000 BC. In southeastern Iran - eastern Kerman and western Baluchistan - sites like Tepe Yahya, Bampur, Shahdad and the cemetery near Konar Sandal in Jiroft have yielded thousands of fragments and complete vessels with shapes and decoration that are strikingly reminiscent of Umm an-Nar pottery. Rather than suggesting that the Umm an-Nar pottery was spontaneously developed by people who had no tradition of their own in making pottery, people who were adept at making stone tools and jewellery, but who never used clay, it seems far more likely that immigrants from across the Straits of Hormuz introduced the idea and techniques of pottery manufacture around 2500 BC.seem increasingly clear that the sophisticated ceramic tradition of the UmmExcavations at Tell Abraq.Part of the ‘Standard InscriptionNext, we learn that Manishtushu was met by a coalition of thirty-two cities. Next, we learn that Manishtushu was met by a coalition of thirty-two cities. In this case, the term translated ‘cities’ could just as easily have been ‘town’ or ‘village’, or perhaps something neutral like ‘settlement’. There were no ‘cities’ in the sense of true, urban centres in the UAE or Oman at this time, but there were plenty of sites dating to the Umm an-Nar period and it seems reasonable to suggest that what Manishtushu encountered was a coalition made up of combatants from several dozen settlements. Interestingly, unlike other royal inscriptions that name enemy generals and kings, Manishtushu’s is silent on this front. But it is not surprising to find no one leader singled out in the text. Rather, given the dispersed, relatively small size of the towers described on page 49, it seems far more likely that each was the power base ofa local ruler and his family, perhaps comparable to the ruling sheikhs of the emirates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who banded together to face the threat of an Akkadian invasion, but who did not acknowledge any one of their number as a supreme leader or king. Later this situation seems to have changed, since a ‘king of Magan is said to have sent gold dust in 2069 BC to Shulgi, the powerful king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, which succeeded the Akkadian empire as the greatest power in Mesopotamia. This suggests that Magan may have undergone some Mesopotamia in the west.somewhere to the east.Umm an-Nar tombs are usuallyA reconstructed tomb of Ummhas meant that often onlyfrom the tomb at Tell Abraq.local manufacture.in the tomb at Tell Abraq.seal impression showing oneAs noted above, on several occasions clothing and wool figured amongst the goods bartered in Magan for copper. During the period of Ur’s dominance, southern Mesopotamia had enormous textile factories. With an economy based upon sheep and goat herding, as well as agriculture, Mesopotamia was well- supplied with phenomenal quantities of wool. Texts from Ur show that the number of weavers in its territory, mainly women and children, numbered around 12,000-13,000. Deliveries of 26 tons of wool are recorded. A broken text lists 5800 pieces of finished cloth. So, there is no doubt that the textile industry lists 5800 pieces of finished cloth. So, there is no doubt that the textile industryMany tombs of the Wadi SugBronze fish hook from Tell Abraq.An ostrich decorates the outside ofEarly in the second millennium, two broad groups of pottery vessels appear that had no precursors in the Umm an-Nar period. The first consists of large, irregular pouring vessels with a globular body and a short spout, sometimes with a panel of vertical zig-zag decoration on the upper body. The second consists of squat beakers with simple geometric decoration beneath the rim, often in the form of parallel sets of wavy lines between horizontal stripes, and sometimes in the form of chevrons. There is a strange resemblance between the decoration on these beakers and much earlier painted pottery motifs from southeastern Iran, but whether or not the Wadi Sugq versions reflect anotherside, covered with earth and gravel.Tomb at Naslah in the Wadi al-northern Ras al-Khaimah.no means the exclusive prerogative of males, but may be buried with females for symbolic reasons. Without knowing something about the ideology and beliefs of the period we cannot interpret the high numbers of weapons found in Wadi Suq period graves. In India, for example, some tribal groups put objects into graves because, with the death of their owner, they become taboo and no longer usable by the living. Others place objects in graves out of affection, to assist the deceased in the afterlife. Still others do so because they do not want to be accused of deriving any material benefit from the possessions of the deceased. Whatever the explanation may be, there is no doubting the fact that weapons are more abundant in Wadi Suq graves than they were in the Umm an-Nar period. unworked stone.The falaj technique of irrigation has the Iron Age.under cultivation.in Iron Age tombs across the UAE.Shell disks with rosette decorationAs for the animal side of the economy, hunting decreased greatly in importance during the Iron Age, although small numbers of gazelle and Arabian oryx were recorded in the Iron Age levels at Tell Abraq, and marine mammals, like dugong, as well as sea turtles and Socotra cormorants, were also consumed. Sheep and goat were probably more important than cattle, but all three contributed to the Iron Age diet, from Rafaq in the east to Tell Abragq and Muweilah in the west. The herders at Muweilah do not seem to have raised the large type of sheep attested at Tell Abraq. The biggest innovation in animal husbandry, however, was undoubtedly the domestication of the camel. This is clearly seen in Iron II times when size differences, when compared with the wild species of the Bronze Age, are apparent. Cattle were still more numerous than camel, but this is probably because cattle continued to be used for milk and meat. Muweilah shows more evidence of camel than any other Iron Age site, but this undoubtedly reflects the fact that the animals were used firstly as pack animals, and only secondarily as a source of protein. all times in the UAE’ past.be overestimated.ghaf), various types of Acacia, Christ’s thorn (Ziziphus spina cristi) and tamarisk (Tamarix sp.) dotted the landscape. Gazelle, Arabian oryx, ostrich and jackal roamed wild. ghaf), various types of Acacia, Christ’s thorn (Ziziphus spina cristi) and tamariskDespite the fact that a small number of Iron Age sherds have been found at Mleiha, no actual levels of Iron Age occupation have been found where excavations have been taken down to sterile soil. Nevertheless, if we look at the pottery from Mleiha, the coarse wares, particularly the large storage jars with raised, flattened bands around them, are clearly a continuation of a unique style developed during the Iron Age that carries on into the first century AD at both Mleiha and ed-Dur, on the coast of Umm al-Qaiwain. This suggests a significant measure of continuity in the basic population of the region. On the other hand, it would be wrong to infer that Mleiha represents a straightforward case of evolution from the Iron Age. There is an important difference in burial patterns, as discussed below, and new foreign orientations suggested by a wide range of imported goods. It is possible, therefore, that we have a situation in which an essentially local community, practicing traditions (such as pottery manufacture) as their ancestors had done for centuries before them, came to be ruled by a new elite originating in another area, or by a local elite emulating displays of Despite the fact that a small number of Iron Age sherds have been found The French excavators at Mleiha have identified five periods of occupation as follows: barley and dates. The fruit of the Christ’s thorn tree (Ziziphus spina cristi) wasThe tree locally called ghafA funerary inscription in South Arabian script from Mleiha.Silver tetradrachm from Mleiha.Inscription in Aramaic engravedDebased local coin of copper-silverlonger preserved, above ground. Beach rock was used to constructsures of Eros, Roman intaglios and the occasional coin also turned up. Locally the head and upper body on one side, the tail on the other. The termination oftomb at ed-Dur.Eastern Arabia was thus united politically and economically with Iran by the Sasanians, and commercial ties between the region and the east, particularly south India, are well-attested. But the local economy may have been of greater importance to the inhabitants of the UAE, and their trade may not have been very monetised, for very few Sasanian coins have ever been found in the region. A single bronze dirham of Ardashir’s and a fragmentary silver dirhamabove: Stucco from Sir Bani Yasmonastic complex on Sir Bani Yas.A stucco cross from Sir Bani Yas.circulation in eastern Arabia indue to the absence of a proper harbour. He also described islands in the ‘sea of Qatar’, which may well have included some of the Abu Dhabi islands, where guano was gathered for export as fertiliser to Basra. Another great geographer, Yaqut, writing around 1224, described Jullafar or Jurrafar as ‘a country/town [balad] in Oman and it produces sheep, cheese and ghee, which are carried from there to the surrounding countries/towns [al-bulddn]’. He also noted Khor Fakkan, which he described as a small town with springs of sweet water, date palms and a sheltered harbour. Yaqut was the only early Arab geographer to mention Fujairah (Al Fujayra).above: Silver Hormuzi coin Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg/The Bridgeman Art Library.guided only by the stars.Private Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library. After Bahrain, Julfar was the second most important pearling port in the region. A centre of maritime activity, it was, according to Suleyman the Magnificent’s Turkish admiral Sidi Ali Celebi (d.1562), the birthplace of Ahmad b. Majid Al Najdi, also known as Ahmad b. Majid Al Julfari, the great Arab mariner. Ibn Majid, who died around 1500, was a mu‘allim (pilot) of an ocean-going vessel, who spent much of his life sailing in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. His magnum opus, the Kitab al-Fawa’id, covers everything from the history, theory and principles of navigation to instructions for sailing in south-east Asia and the South China Sea, the western Indian Ocean (Maldives, Zanzibar and Madagascar), the waters on either side of India, and all around the Arabian Peninsula. Internal evidence in his work suggests that Ibn Majid, who traced his ancestry to the Bedouin of the central Arabian Najd, must have been born c.1432-1437. Although he was accused by some early writers of guiding Vasco da Gama from East Africa to India, and hence opening the Indian Ocean to the Portuguese, this appears now to be a late tradition, without any basis in reality. Indeed, the first Portuguese contact with the region was probably a visit to Hormuz made by the traveller Pero da Cavilha (also Cavilhao or Cavilham)Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris/ Giraudon/ The Bridgeman Art Library.The Portuguese chronicler Barros says that the Banu Jabr controlled the territory behind Khor Fakkan, Sohar and Muscat, in other words, the land backing onto Originally published/produced in Amsterdam, Cornelis Claesz, 1596 (c) All Rights Reserved. The British Library Board. Licence Number: TRIPRE02. when he said, in 1546, that many ships went to Julfar, Bahrain, Qatif anda peace agreement with the Al Bu Sa‘ids and their Hula allies.appeared at Al Ain/Buraimi. As the Carmathians and Banu Jabr had done before them, the Wahhabis - a movement of puritanical religious reformists named after Muhammad b. ‘Abd Al Wahhab (c.1703-1792), supported by the Al Saud sheikhs of Diriyya in central Arabia (near modern Riyadh) - were expanding eastward. In 1799, after several years of resistance, the Qawasim entered into a treaty with the Wahhabis. In so doing, the Wahhabis acquired naval forces to match their terrestrial ones. heikhs of Diriyya in central Arabia (near modern Riyadh) — were expandingin the UAE that is still in use.rupees became the common currency in the port towns, while Maria Theresa Fishing and pearling continued to be important occupations along the coast, while herding and agriculture were practiced in the interior. British Indian rupees became the common currency in the port towns, while Maria Theresalanding rights for seaplanes were acquired there and in Dubai, Ra’s al-Khaimah and on Sir Bani Yas. Landing fees provided valuable income for the ruler of Sharjah, and emergency landing strips existed on Sir Bani Yas and at Kalba. landing rights for seaplanes were acquired there and in Dubai, Ra’s al-KhaimahDubai Creek in the 1960s.as the ‘Father of the Nation’.‘The British treaties governing their presence in the area and their relations with the emirates were due to expire on 2 December 1971. The Shah then made it clear to Sir William Luce, the British Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative in the area, that he would not tolerate the formation of the UAE unless he obtained control over Abu Musa, owned by Sharjah, and the Greater and Lesser Tunb islands, owned by Ra’s al-Khaimah. In late November, 1971, under heavy pressure, Sharjah signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran that provided for shared authority over Abu Musa, although without any concession on Sharjah’s part of sovereignty. On the final day of Ra’s al-Khaimah’s protection under its treaty with Britain, Iran attacked the Tunbs and seized them, killing a number of Ra’s al-Khaimah policemen in the process. Finally, on 10 February 1972, Ra’s al-Khaimah joined the federation and the UAE was complete. With such threats from outside forces thus realised, the wisdom of forming a union was clearly vindicated. It was not until 1975 that Saudi Arabia’s claim to most of Abu Dhabi territory was dropped, although the UAE has never accepted their shared border. of Abu Dhabi territory was dropped, although the UAE has never accepted An aerial view of Abu DhabiBurj Khalifa, at 828 metres, is
![due to the absence of a proper harbour. He also described islands in the ‘sea of Qatar’, which may well have included some of the Abu Dhabi islands, where guano was gathered for export as fertiliser to Basra. Another great geographer, Yaqut, writing around 1224, described Jullafar or Jurrafar as ‘a country/town [balad] in Oman and it produces sheep, cheese and ghee, which are carried from there to the surrounding countries/towns [al-bulddn]’. He also noted Khor Fakkan, which he described as a small town with springs of sweet water, date palms and a sheltered harbour. Yaqut was the only early Arab geographer to mention Fujairah (Al Fujayra).](/image.pl?url=https%3a%2f%2ffigures.academia-assets.com%2f28064520%2ffigure_127.jpg&f=jpg&w=240)
