Tweet
Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates)
March 16, 2012 Friday
A window to history
After years of excavation, Sharjah's Jebel Fayah opens a new window to
the history of the mankind through the more than 30,000 artifacts
unearthed from an 85,000-year-old ancient city.
More than just sand dune bashing and desert trips, tourists and
archaeology enthusiasts now have some interesting new findings in the
area.
Jebel Fayah has been the focus of years of excavation, yielding
thousands of human tools that expose migration to the site
characterised by its various cultural periods and historic phases
extending from Middle Paleolithic to the 18th century A.D.
Archaeologists have also dated the stone tools back to the Neolithic
Period, which belong to the fourth millennium and third millennium
B.C.
Currently, excavation work is being carried out as part of a joint
programme by the Directorate of Antiquities at the Culture and
Information Department in Sharjah and the Institute of Prehistoric
Studies and Research at the German University of Tubingen ¨since 2004.
German archaeologist Knut Bretzke of Tubingen University, head of
Jebel Fayah excavation team, says that tools from the Stone Age dated
back to 120,000 years have traced the presence of mobile herders from
Africa in this ancient city through Egypt. "This is the oldest human
remains outside Africa. We have discovered four different layers of
human activities in this site suggesting four waves of migration. Only
the first one came from Africa, and the remaining three from different
regions, but still under further study."
He says that the site is the only one in Arabia with four different
layers starting from Stone Age and that makes it very interesting.
"The site finds dating back to 120,000 years of human existence has
made us understand how and where human beings came here from, how they
lived here, and where they were going."
Bretzke explains that only Africans, among human species, used to modify tools.
"If they had stones, they polished the edges to make them sharper and
retouched them to give shapes. Africans used different methods to
modify and this kind of technology is only typical to them. This kind
of tools we found here makes us conclude that Africans were the first
wave of migration to ancient Sharjah 120,000 years ago."
Robert Ghukasyan, Armenian excavation assistant, makes sure that all
daily find will be measured and labeled by finding the coordinates
using a computer installed at the site.
"I am measuring the exact position of the artifacts in the excavation
grid so we will know horizontally and vertically the coordinates or
the Y and X axis, clean the find and label them with Bretzke."
Part of the tools discovered coincides with the time when man left
Africa and reached Australia around 50,000 years ago. In collaboration
with earlier finds, the archaeologists found that man moved from east
Africa to the south of the Arabian Peninsula and then to the northern
coasts of the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
They crossed the seas when the sea level was low, to the islands now
known as Indonesia, a proof that they knew navigation that allowed
them to sail to Australia.
It could also be assumed that some of the ancestors of Australia's
first residents stayed in the rocky shelters on the foot of Jebel
Fayah mountain before proceeding to Australia.
The global significance of the Jebel Fayah finds has put it in the
limelight that also lures international tourists and many scientists
and archaeologists to the area.
>From their sand dune experience nearby the excavation site, tourists,
mostly Italians, British, French and Germans catch glimpses of date
plantations and camel tracks as the sun's rays flood the deserts
sands. Jeremy Sands of Britain says: "I love this nature tour. It is
amazing to see hordes of camels spread around the area. I wonder how
they survived all these years when you can hardly find green desert
vegetation around?," he says.
French Angelique Marseille feels too glad to discover this significant
find as part of the nature tour.
"It is great. At least, I know something new in this trip."
March 16, 2012 Friday
A window to history
After years of excavation, Sharjah's Jebel Fayah opens a new window to
the history of the mankind through the more than 30,000 artifacts
unearthed from an 85,000-year-old ancient city.
More than just sand dune bashing and desert trips, tourists and
archaeology enthusiasts now have some interesting new findings in the
area.
Jebel Fayah has been the focus of years of excavation, yielding
thousands of human tools that expose migration to the site
characterised by its various cultural periods and historic phases
extending from Middle Paleolithic to the 18th century A.D.
Archaeologists have also dated the stone tools back to the Neolithic
Period, which belong to the fourth millennium and third millennium
B.C.
Currently, excavation work is being carried out as part of a joint
programme by the Directorate of Antiquities at the Culture and
Information Department in Sharjah and the Institute of Prehistoric
Studies and Research at the German University of Tubingen ¨since 2004.
German archaeologist Knut Bretzke of Tubingen University, head of
Jebel Fayah excavation team, says that tools from the Stone Age dated
back to 120,000 years have traced the presence of mobile herders from
Africa in this ancient city through Egypt. "This is the oldest human
remains outside Africa. We have discovered four different layers of
human activities in this site suggesting four waves of migration. Only
the first one came from Africa, and the remaining three from different
regions, but still under further study."
He says that the site is the only one in Arabia with four different
layers starting from Stone Age and that makes it very interesting.
"The site finds dating back to 120,000 years of human existence has
made us understand how and where human beings came here from, how they
lived here, and where they were going."
Bretzke explains that only Africans, among human species, used to modify tools.
"If they had stones, they polished the edges to make them sharper and
retouched them to give shapes. Africans used different methods to
modify and this kind of technology is only typical to them. This kind
of tools we found here makes us conclude that Africans were the first
wave of migration to ancient Sharjah 120,000 years ago."
Robert Ghukasyan, Armenian excavation assistant, makes sure that all
daily find will be measured and labeled by finding the coordinates
using a computer installed at the site.
"I am measuring the exact position of the artifacts in the excavation
grid so we will know horizontally and vertically the coordinates or
the Y and X axis, clean the find and label them with Bretzke."
Part of the tools discovered coincides with the time when man left
Africa and reached Australia around 50,000 years ago. In collaboration
with earlier finds, the archaeologists found that man moved from east
Africa to the south of the Arabian Peninsula and then to the northern
coasts of the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
They crossed the seas when the sea level was low, to the islands now
known as Indonesia, a proof that they knew navigation that allowed
them to sail to Australia.
It could also be assumed that some of the ancestors of Australia's
first residents stayed in the rocky shelters on the foot of Jebel
Fayah mountain before proceeding to Australia.
The global significance of the Jebel Fayah finds has put it in the
limelight that also lures international tourists and many scientists
and archaeologists to the area.
>From their sand dune experience nearby the excavation site, tourists,
mostly Italians, British, French and Germans catch glimpses of date
plantations and camel tracks as the sun's rays flood the deserts
sands. Jeremy Sands of Britain says: "I love this nature tour. It is
amazing to see hordes of camels spread around the area. I wonder how
they survived all these years when you can hardly find green desert
vegetation around?," he says.
French Angelique Marseille feels too glad to discover this significant
find as part of the nature tour.
"It is great. At least, I know something new in this trip."