Andy's Blog: Marawah Island Settlement MR11, United Arab Emirates

Early coastal trading village, oldest pearls (8,000 years ago)

Hey, it’s my first direct post on Blogger! Recently, I’ve explored some potential settlements that were lost due to the rising sea level. Today, I’m going to talk about a new settlement that was created thanks to the rising sea level. During the height of the Ice Age, there was no Persian Gulf. As the sea levels rose as the Earth warmed, the gulf began to fill in. When humanity first domesticated livestock, the place that would become the Arabian Peninsula was not the desert we know now, but rather, it was a Savanna like land. The people in the area started herding livestock, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. They were nomadic pastoralists, moving their animals from pasture to pasture. Then, around 8,000 years ago, the gulf coast reaches its roughly modern extent - even a little higher than today - and Marawah became an island off the coast of what is now the United Arab Emirates, about 100 km west of its capitol Abu Dabi. The herders of the area decided to settle down on this island and take advantage of its sea resources and access to other parts of the gulf via boat. We know of two such settlements at the west end of the island, MR11 (the better excavated one) and MR1 (mostly known just for some stone projectile points right now). Thus began a way of life that continues to the modern day.

Archaeologists found houses in a settlement on the island that date back to 8000 years ago and remained in use for a couple hundred years. Small single room houses were shaped like ovals or “pills”. They had very thick walls of cobbled together stones. It was originally thought that the stones would be placed in such a way so as to form a dome “igloo style”, although now they’re thinking they might have used something else to form a roof. These little building units would be built adjacent to each other to form multi-room houses, sometimes with a door between them, other times without. There appeared to be separate areas for livestock, so they continued to care for livestock even after settling down, though to a reduced capacity from their herding days. Based on the content of vases found in the home, their main source of food was fish from the gulf though, which included requiem sharks, groupers, sea bream, and emperor fish. They found stone sinkers near the water, indicating that they fished utilizing nets. Shark teeth were punctured to make beads and likely used in necklaces. They also ate marine mammals, such as Dugongs (sea cows). Dugongs have been an important food source for the area until hunting them was banned in the 1970s. Today, the island is a nature reserve with the second largest population of Dugongs after Australia. Dolphins were also on the menu. One dolphin jaw bone had grooves carved into it, perhaps as some kind of artistic display. They also appeared to have hunted Gazelle. It’s speculated that they might have introduced gazelles to the island so that there would be a supply available to hunt for when they wanted to eat them. They had large stone spears that they would use to hunt these mammals, and stone knives for slicing them up.

It seems that after some homes were no longer being used as residences for the living, that they would be reused as buriel places for the dead. Two skeletons were found in the first house excavated in fetal positions, including “Marawah Man”. Unfortunately, they weren’t in good condition and scientists were unable to extract any dna from them due to difficulties in preservation due to the proximity of salt water.

One thing that excites archaeologists is an indication of early trade with Mesopotamia. They found a nearly complete vase from the Ubaid civilization there. It is thought that such vases would be considered a luxury good. They also found plaster vessels that appeared to be made locally and were painted in such a way as to mimic the Ubaid vase’s artistic patterns. They later discovered the means by which they thought they may have “paid” for the vases. They found the world’s oldest known pearl, dubbed the “Abu Dabi Pearl” in exhibitions, in one of the homes, which was about 7,700 years old. They speculate that they must have boats that could have traversed the Persian Gulf and allowed the trade of pearls for vases and other goods. Pearling has been a main source of income for the gulf coast into twentieth century, with records of it in the middle ages and a prime source for the pearls prized by Europeans in the 1600s. It was the United Arab Emirates primary source of wealth before Japanese cultured pearls drove down their prices in the 1930s, forcing them to switch their economy to oil. It’s neat to know that this industry has a history that stretches this far back. International commerce along the gulf has had a history as long. They also turned pearl oyster shells into buttons and made use of other shellfish for things like beads.

Unfortunately, this area started getting dryer and dryer, and the settlements were abandoned around 6,500 years ago. By around 6,000 years ago, it was a desert.

Sources:

News Stories -

2004 Season (Aug 2004)

https://studylib.net/doc/7613530/newsletter-adias-newsletter-may-2004

First biosphere reserve (Aug 2007)

https://gulfnews.com/uae/environment/marawah-is-uaes-first-biosphere-reserve-1.210810

2004 Season Results (Aug 2008)

https://www.academia.edu/2454404/Excavations_on_the_Neolithic_Settlement_of_MR11_on_Marawah_Island_Abu_Dhabi_United_Arab_Emirates_2004_season

Dugongs Hunted (Jun 2015) https://www.thenational.ae/uae/environment/dugongs-were-once-on-the-menu-for-fishermen-in-abu-dhabi-1.106974

New Excavations (Mar 2016) https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/arts-culture/excavations-uncover-early-inhabitants-of-abu-dhabi-1.1698860

2nd Skeleton Found (Aug 2016)

https://www.thenational.ae/uae/ancient-house-for-the-dead-unearthed-on-uae-s-marawah-island-1.160716