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REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH
In recent years there has been a lot of interest in unearthing the secrets of the diverse landscapes of the eastern Arabian Peninsula – lands that form the modern United Arab Emirates (UAE). Unsurprisingly, much of this area of the Peninsula has yielded a wealth of archaeology that dates from the Middle Palaeolithic to historical times. Recent research, using up-to-date excavation and survey techniques, has provided new perspectives on what was once considered to be a fragmentary archaeological resource. The archaeological fieldwork has been made possible partly by the rapid advance in development projects around the various towns and cities that occupy the northern coastline and around the city of Al-Ain.
The book is organised into 20 chapters and is chronologically ordered, from the lithic scatters of the Late Pleistocene to the archaeology of buildings from the historic period. Between the two chronological extremes, most periods are covered. The book is the result of an archaeology conference that was held in Abu Dhabi in 2022.
The subject matter is diverse and covers nearly all aspects of the past within this area of the Arabian Peninsula – albeit missing a significant number of rock-art sites that would have warranted a mention (see CWA 116 and CWA 124). Despite this omission, the conference papers are well written and do place the UAE on the world’s archaeological map.
For my personal interests, worthy of comment are several of the chapters that cover early prehistory: Chapter 2, which discusses the recent evidence obtained from Middle and Upper Palaeolithic occupation sites in and around Sharjah; the later prehistoric fieldwork occurring on Umm an-Nar Island (Chapter 6) and Kalba (Chapter 7); as well as the sterling work covered in Chapter 10 – the fieldwork and analysis of Iron Age stone vessels found at the Al-Ain oasis. Also deserving of mention is the later section of the book that focuses on the heritage management of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al-Ain: an area that stands east of the dramatic Jebel Hafeet anticline (mountain) and includes the showcase Bronze Age burial monuments of the Hafit Culture (Chapter 18).
Arguably, the historical past is equally important, and the book does provide six chapters on various aspects of Early Islamic archaeology (from the early to mid-7th century to the 13th century). The city of Al-Ain is again featured in Chapters 15 and 16, both focusing on this early historical period. Finally, in Chapter 20, Hamdan Rashed Al Rashedi provides a useful discussion on the unique architecture of Abu Dhabi.
It is refreshing to note that the book includes archaeologists from a multitude of nations, including those who are native to the UAE (local and regional specialist knowledge is essential for a volume such as this). My only criticism is the absence of an informative opening chapter that would have provided the reader with a contextual narrative of the history and archaeology of this part of the Arabian Peninsula. Despite this, the editorial team from the Zayed National Museum authorities are to be congratulated for producing such a handsome book.
Advances in UAE Archaeology: Proceedings of Abu Dhabi’s Archaeology Conference 2022
Zayed National Museum (ed.)
Archaeopress, £58
ISBN 978-1803276731
