In January this year, the UAE Origins Project team undertook an extensive fieldwork programme along the cliff sections and hinterlands of Qarn bint Sa’ud (also known as Bidaa bint Sa’ud), a small limestone escarpment that lies to the north of the city of Al Ain and forms part of the northern limit of the Al-Hajar Mountains. The project was set up to identify and record sites and rock art that date from the Palaeolithic through to the proto-historic periods. Our focus was to explore the caves, rock shelters, overhangs, and ancient land surfaces located in inlets that naturally cut into this isolated landmark, while searching for evidence of early symbolic behaviour and settlement patterns. The UAE Origins Project team also explored additional areas along the Jebel Hafeet and the limestone escarpments along the Omani border further to the east of Al Ain.
The Qarn bint Sa’ud is a limestone outcrop orientated northwest–southeast and measuring 520m on its northwest–southeast axis by 245m east–west. The summit rises above an arid desert area that was at various times in prehistory slightly wetter and lusher than at present. Exposed around the outcrop among a dominant dune system is a series of ancient land surfaces that have revealed extensive flint scatters, which possibly date from the Middle Palaeolithic through to later prehistory.
The caves, rock overhangs, and rock shelters that contain evidence of prehistoric archaeology are located within three naturally formed semi-circular enclaves. Each enclave contains evidence of Bronze/Iron Age burial-ritual activity, in the form of denuded stone cairns. Up to 23 burial cairns stand close to the eastern lower slopes of the rock outcrop and date between the 2nd and 4th millennia BC. Locally, these monuments are referred to as Hafit type tombs.
