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Archaeological
Excavations at MR11
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Introduction
Previous work
Pictures from the 2004 excavations
Film clips from the 2004 excavations
Publications
Links
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
eastwest and a maximum of 5.5 kilometres northsouth. 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).
Mangrove
on Marawah (Source: Arabian
Wildlife)
Marawah -
Marawah
archaeology (Source: Uaeinteract.com)
Marawah
Marine Protected Area (Source: ERWDA)
Radiocarbon
dates from Marawah (Source: ADIAS website)
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