Archaeological Excavations at MR11

INTRODUCTION

Location of Marawah (Source: ADIAS)

The island of Marawah lies around 100 kilometres to the west of the city of Abu Dhabi, and is located just to the north of the Khor al Bazm. To the west is the small island of Al Fiyah, to the southeast the island of Junaina, and to the east the island of Abu al Abyad. It is around 15 km north of the main coastline and about eight km north west of Junaina. Marawah is around 13 kilometres from east–west and a maximum of 5.5 kilometres north–south. The structure of the island is formed from relict Pleistocene limestone platforms linked by Holocene (recent) sand and beach deposits and intervening patches of sabkha (salt flats).



Mapping of archaeological sites on Marawah - 1st ADIAS season, 1992 (Source: ADIAS)

ADIAS carried out a preliminary survey of the archaeological sites on the island in 1992 (King 1998). This identified a total of 13 major sites ranging in date from the Late Stone Age to Late Islamic period. More recent surveys during the late 1990's and since 2000 have added more sites to this total.

Mapping of archaeological sites on Marawah - April 2002 (Source: ADIAS)

PREVIOUS WORK

The site known as MR11, located in the south-western corner of the island, was first discovered in 1992. It was originally described as consisting of a group of seven cairns located 2kms NW of the modern village of Ghubba at the NW tip of a limestone ridge. These mounds were interpreted as pre-Islamic burial mounds. It was noted that they seemed to be circular structures/mounds to which stones had been added over time. All the cairns were similar, made from mounded sand with large (50-60cms; 10cms thick) and medium (20-30cm) slabs of local beachstone.

The site was subsequently briefly examined by Dr Joseph Elders and John Martin in 2000 and 2003. A test sondage was made into one of the mounds, as well as some surface clearance in order to clarify the nature of the walls and layout of the structure. An initial hypothesis was that an apsidal shaped building was in actual fact a "church", as its size and dimensions were at first glance very similar to the example excavated by ADIAS on the island of Sir Bani Yas. This assumption subsequently proved to be incorrect. Ash samples taken during the 2003 season provided two radiocarbon dates which confirmed that the site in actual fact dated back 7000 years to the early 5th millennium BC. [N.B.: Two charcoal samples from the 2004 season have pushed back the dating of the beginning of occupation at the site to as early as the mid 6th millennium BC. More details to be provided shortly.]



Excavations in 2003 at MR11, area A



Excavations in 2003 at MR11, area B



Radiocarbon dates from MR11



7000 year-old flint spear and arrowhead excavated from Area B at the MR-11 settlement on Marawah island.

2004 EXCAVATIONS

During March to early April 2004 an ADIAS team undertook further excavations at MR11. The excavations were directed by ADIAS Senior Resident Archaeologist, Dr Mark Beech, and the team comprised: Richard Cuttler and Derek Moscrop (Birmingham Archaeology, UK), Dr Heiko Kallweit (Freiburg, Germany), and John Martin (Carlisle, UK).

Here are some photographs of the recent work...


Richard Cuttler surveying at MR11



Richard Cuttler inputting data into the EDM.


Site MR11, Area A, prior to the 2004 excavations.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



Site MR11, Area A, Room 1.



John Martin operating the 4mm mesh dry sieve at Site MR11.



From left to right: Derek Moscrop amd Dr Mark Beech excavating and planning the skeletal remains in Area A, Room 1.



The skeletal remains in Area A, Room 1.



Derek Moscrop discovers the first Ubaid sherd at MR11 in the lower part of the section in the sondage trunch excavated by Elders and Martin in Area A during the 2003 season.



Pottery sherd found in Area A, Room 1.



John Martin discovers a clump of potsherds in Area A, Room 1, which look like they might be from the same vessel.


General view of the northern end of Room 1 in Area A. Note the pottery and human bones in the foreground and the plaster vessel fragments to the right of the large rock.



Pottery sherds from Area A, Room 1, at MR11.



Partially reconstructed vessel made from the above sherds from Area A, Room 1.



Concentration of plaster vessel fragments from Area A, Room 1.



Tile knife made from a piece of tabular flint from Area A, Room 1.



Black stone bracelet fragment from Area A, Room 1.



Black stone bracelet fragment in profile from Area A, Room 1.



Some of the MR11 team. From left to right: John Martin, Derek Moscrop and a volunteer excavating inside Area A, Room 1.



The MR11 team. From left to right: Richard Cuttler, Derek Moscrop, Dr Mark Beech and John Martin.

FILM CLIPS

To view some film clips (mpeg format) taken at the end of the recent excavations at MR11 click on one of the following clips. The film clips are all taken within Area A, Room 1, and were all filmed by Dr Mark Beech, ADIAS Senor Resident Archaeologist.

The most comprehensive film clip with accompanying sound commentary is Film 2.

Film 1 (5.3 MB) - a walk through the west door of Room 1, then a look at the north end, east entrance and then the south entrance.

Film 2 (7 MB) - a walk through the west door of Room 1, then a look at the north end and method of wall construction, followed by a look at the east entrance, then the south entrance and west wall. Saeed Al-Rumaithi, a member of staff from the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency's Marawah Marine Protected Area team, is sitting outside the SE corner of house 1. The film commentary is by Dr Mark Beech.

Film 3 (575 Kb) - a walk towards Room 3, just to the east of Room 1.

Film 4 (5.4 MB) - a walk through the west door of Room 1, towards the south end and entrance, then the east entrance.

PUBLICATIONS

Anon. 2004. Houses dating to 5000 BC discovered in UAE. Current World Archaeology magazine, no.3 (issued January 2004).
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (433 Kb) ] .

Anon. 2004. Abu Dhabi Discovery (Source: Archaeology - A Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America - Newsbriefs - Volume 57 Number 5, September/October 2004)

Beech, M. 2003. The diet of Osprey Pandion haliaetus on Marawah island, Abu Dhabi emirate, UAE. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 13.1: 22-25.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (330 Kb) ] .

Beech M., Cuttler R., Moscrop D., Kallweit H. & Martin J. 2005. New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 35: 37-56.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (2.57 MB) ] .

Beech, M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop, H. Kallweit and J. Martin. in prep. New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In: P. Hellyer and M. Ziolkowski (eds.). 2nd Annual Symposium on Recent Archaeological Work in the Emirates. Zayed Centre for Heritage and History.

Evans, G., A. Kirkham and R.A. Carter. 2002. Quaternary Development of the United Arab Emirates Coast: New Evidence from Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi. GeoArabia 7(3): 441-458.
[ to visit the GeoArabia journal website click here ] .

Garfi, S. 1998. A Late Islamic site on Merawah. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 8.1: 31.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (129 Kb) ] .

Hellyer, P. (ed). 1990. The Natural History of Merawah Island. Bulletin of the Emirates Natural History Group 42: 2-20.

Hellyer, P.  1993a. Neolithic flints from Merawah. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 3.1: 20.
[ to download this article in Acrobat .pdf format click here (1.59 MB) ] .

King, G.R.D.  1998.  Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey: Season I - An Archaeological Survey of Sir Bani Yas, Dalma and Marawah: Season One. Trident Press: London.
[ To purchase this book (ISBN 1-900724-14-6) visit Trident Press ]

LINKS

Marawah - ADIAS Guide - visit the main index web page on the ADIAS website for Marawah island.

Visit a Gallery of pictures from Marawah

Photograph of arrowheads from site MR1

View a 7000 year old Late Stone Age flint arrowhead (Quicktime required) from site MR1 on Marawah island (via the external website, the Virtual Museum on the http://www.uaeinteract.com/ website, produced by Trident Press).

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