![]() “Twelve per cent of ceramics found there had been imported from India,” said Prof Power. Evidence for particularly close links to India was found where it is believed pearls were traded for goods. It is densely covered in pottery, glass and coins. The town also traded with the Gulf and beyond. Archaeologists believe millions of shells could have been discarded here over the 200 years the site was occupied with thousands opened to find one pearl. Underlying the tough, back-breaking work of the pearl industry, a huge mound of opened and discarded oyster shells - essentially the industrial waste of the pearl industry - was discovered on a peninsula opposite the town. It brought trade and wealth but pearl diving was a tough life and divers risked death. The shallow, warm waters of the Gulf were known to produce some of the world’s most prized pearls. “Families live together, reflecting the Arab way of life.” “They are very large courtyard houses and similar to those found across the Arabian Peninsula,” said Prof Power. Inside the merchant homes were supplies to sustain the thriving pearl trade, such as bales of rope. ![]() All photos: Umm al Quwain Tourism and Archaeology Department The town on Al Sinniyah Island covers an area of about 12 hectares where structural remains and finds such as pottery, glass and shells indicate dense occupation. Several pearls were found, together with a pearl diver’s weight - devices worn by divers to allow them to descend - which is the oldest well-dated instance yet found in the UAE. These homes were built from local beach rock, while the roofs were likely made from palm trunks brought from the mainland. “It was big and important," adding it was the spiritual ancestor of pearling towns such as Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah's Jazirah Al Hamra. “It was a town like the coal mining towns of the Welsh valleys or Detroit’s car industry,” said Prof Power. Rich and poor lived side by side and traded with countries across the globe with the town's focus overwhelmingly on pearling during about 200 years of occupation. Surrounding these were smaller houses believed to be the homes of poorer fishermen. The place where pearling began in the GulfĪs they went down through the layers, archaeologists found palatial dwellings with large courtyards where it is thought wealthy pearl merchants and elite members of society lived. “But it was clearly much more.”ĭigs carried out this winter showed how something special had been unearthed. “We originally thought it was a village to serve the monks,” said Prof Tim Power of the UAE University, who was part of the team that discovered the site. One reason is because the town's inhabitants left the island and the site was never reoccupied, ensuring it remained preserved. “For the first time, we have the opportunity to study a pearling town from over 1,300 years ago.”Īlthough other pearling towns of this period are known from historical sources to have existed in the Arabian Gulf, this is the first time the site of one has been investigated, documented and excavated. “Pearling has been an essential part of our livelihood and our heritage for over 7,000 years, and some of the earliest known evidence of pearling comes from Neolithic graves in Umm Al Quwain,” said Sheikh Majid. ![]() “This is a discovery of major significance for the history of Umm Al Quwain, the UAE and the wider Arabian Gulf,” said Sheikh Majid bin Saud Al Mualla, chairman of the emirate’s Department of Tourism and Archaeology. Prof Timothy Power, United Arab Emirates University ![]()
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