The road from the inland town of Dhaid splits at Masafi, leading to Dibba to the north and Fujairah City to the south.Ī number of excavations point to Bronze Age habitation in Masafi, which has a recently restored (2012) stone and adobe fort, smaller but architecturally similar to the nearby Al Bithnah Fort, also restored as part of the same project. Until relatively recently, with the construction of the Sharjah to Kalba road and the 'truck road' between Dibba and the 311 highway at Ras al-Khaimah, the road through Masafi was the only route from the interior to the East Coast of the UAE. This gave us a chance to know more about the chronology and economy and social structure of these populations of the late Bronze Age.A Falaj (man-made underground aquifer) at Masafi Fort “This period is the transition to the Iron Age and is not very well known. “The aim was to understand this late Bronze Age site,” said Dr Charbonnier. While the site has now been almost completely excavated, more studies are needed, not least to understand if other villages used shells in a similar way. It shows some traditions from the Bronze Age continue to the Iron Age,” he said. “This is the first time we have detailed analysis of sea shells from sites from the late Bronze Age. “But it is different with shell tools, as they are very easy to make, so this is maybe a way to explain why people were still using them during the late Bronze Age and Iron Age.”įor Dr Charbonnier, it sheds new light on a poorly understood era, as many sites were not properly excavated and studies were limited. “The production of metal tools is very specialised and something only people with knowledge of the smith can do. Oldest pearling town in the Arabian Gulf discovered in Umm Al Quwain At this time, many were making tools with metal, so why did this practice continue at Masafi? Other shells were turned into jewellery, containers for cosmetics and trinkets. These could be used to cut ropes and palm tree fibres, or in basketry. Much of it was for food, but they used leftover shells such as venus clam, violet asaphis and ark shell to make cutting tools. It is thought the small community at Masafi might have traded pottery for raw shells with Kalba and Khor Fakkan.
Archaeologists believe it could be the first inland town in the region to have shown evidence for turning shells into adornments such as mother-of-pearl plaques and rings made from conus shells. There is evidence they had cattle, sheep and goats and they also produced pottery and local copper.”īut it is the use of sea shells that is noteworthy. “There was the cultivation of cereals and dates. “We found remains of stone or masonry terraces, so the inhabitants were living on top of terraces,” said Dr Charbonnier, field director for the project. The remains of fireplaces and furnaces suggest the presence of copper mining and metallurgy. The area's ancient inhabitants lived in terraces, grew crops and reared animals. Masafi 5 is thought to have been occupied intermittently during the late Bronze Age (1,600 to 1,300 BC) and at the beginning of the Iron Age (1,300 to 300 BC).Įxcavations by the French Archaeological Mission in the UAE and in conjunction with the Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Authority took place at the site over the past decade, with the most recent ending in 2020. It developed over the millennia as a strategic link between the west and east coasts. Masafi is rich in history and shows evidence of occupation across several sites for thousands of years. So … to see people collecting shells on the coasts and then processing them in Masafi, that is very strange and interesting.” “It is about six hours minimum on foot from the coasts. “Here at Masafi we are in the mountains,” said Dr Lidour. They even had a workshop to produce them on site and this sets this inland village apart, as this type of work was typically found only on the coast.
It tells about the people who lived in this terraced agricultural village during the late Bronze Age and, intriguingly, how they imported sea shells from the eastern coast, and used them as tools and jewellery. Dr Kevin Lidour, Emirati-French Archaeological Mission in the UAE
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