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ADACH announces new archaeological discovery in Abu Dhabi
UAE. Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) has revealed ِan important discovery of archaeological materials from the Palaeolithic Period in Abu Dhabi Emirate.
''The artefacts were found by a team from the Department of Historic Environment. The discovery included a good number of new stone artefacts of the Levallois, a stone reduction technique that was known during the Old Stone Age,HE Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei, Director General of ADACH announced.
One of the several functions of this type of tools, he explained, was to split animal bones to extract the marrow which was a nutritious food resource. It is worth mentioning here that this period had proceeded the food production era, based on agriculture and the domestication of animals in the Near East by tens of thousands of years.
Dr Ghanim Wahida, a specialist in Stone Age archaeology, was invited by ADACH to study and evaluate the artefacts, said that the discovered assemblage belongs to techno -typologically to the Middle Stone Age Period, well over 150000 thousands years ago.
''Among the implements a distinctive artefact in the form of a handaxe of the Middle Stone Age has been discovered in Abu Dhabi Emirate for the first time this season. The hand axe, an all purpose tool, was made by a technique known as direct percussion, using in this case a soft hammer,'' he added.
Dr Walid Yasin, Manager of the Archaeology Division at ADACH, who had discovered these two sites and picked up a number of distinctive artefacts, including the above-mentioned handaxe, said the Levallios technique was first discovered in the nineteenth century at the archaeological site of Levallios, near Paris.
''Today, similar artefacts are known from Europe, Africa and Asia. In the Near East they are usually associated with Neanderthal man. The significance of this major discovery ?lies in the fact that it alters our understanding of the beginning of the first human activities in Abu Dhabi Emirate which seem to have gone back well into the Old Stone Age.
''This important discovery does contradict an earlier claim made by archaeologists during the late twentieth century that the earliest occupation of the Arabian Gulf was during the New Stone Age, some 7,500 years ago. This discovery complements an earlier finds made last year at the same area,'' Yasin added.
ADACH said the importance of last year discovery was presented to the world of prehistoric archaeology by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage at the Seminar for Arabian Studies, held at the British Museum last Summer. Results of the new discovery were to be published as a chapter in a book dedicated to the evolution and history of human population in Arabia, before the end of this year.
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