Reports on UAE archaeological studies and discoveries were released in an international seminar held at the British Museum in London last month. The annual seminar on Arabian Studies was held from July 17 to 19.
     The focus of the UAE papers was on a complete report on the Golf Club site at Abu Dhabi International Airport, by Peter Hellyer, Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Islands Survey (Adias), and Dr Mark Beech, Adias Field Archaeologist. The site at Abu Dhabi Airport was first discovered in February 1995. Adias made a systematic surface collection of pottery, lithics and other finds during July 1995. According to the paper, investigations suggest sporadic occupation from the Hafit period (3100-2700 BC) with maximum settlements during the second half of the third millennium BCE.
     Heiko Kallweit, Honorary Research Fellow at Freiburg University in Germany, presented his paper Lithics from the Emirates - New Finds from the Abu Dhabi Airport Site. He examined, in his paper, the new lithic finds so far not reported from the Gulf region. It also re-examines the finds from previous excavations at the site. "Additionally, new diagnostic stone tools were recorded during recent field work. Crescent shaped microliths are reported from two different sub-sites (ADA 1 and ADA 7) of the Abu Dhabi Airport site. They seem to be similar with the finds of the Tihama, Saudi Arabia. The microliths are likely to be part of a Bronze Age technology."

Source: Gulf News (4 August 2003)