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.
Finding Eden and fighting extinction