A first note on the excavations at UAQ38, a new Neolithic site in the Emirate of Umm al‐Quwain

Abstract

At the end of 2018, the first season of excavation was carried out at the shell midden site of UAQ38. The site occupies the top of a sand dune not far from UAQ36 and UAQ2, two other recently investigated Neolithic shell middens. Several well-stratified anthropogenic levels were excavated at UAQ38, which can be dated mainly to the 5th millennium BC, although the recorded artefacts suggest a possible older date for the lowest levels. Food waste, post-holes, fireplaces, and burnt shell dumpings attest to human activities that took place at the site over a rather long period of time.Here the stratigraphic sequence will be presented, together with a first overview of the artefactual assemblage. The collected data will be concisely discussed in order to fit the site within the typology of Neolithic settlements that can be proposed for the area. UAQ38 is so far the only Neolithic site along the northeastern coast of the UAE for which stratified charcoal is available for dating. K E Y W O R D SArabia, material culture, mobility, Neolithic, shell midden 106 |

The adoption of cattle pastoralism in the Arabian Peninsula: A reappraisal

“…Ubaid pottery was identified in the late sixth millennium BC layers of Umm al‐Quwain 2, but it is unclear how this material culture is precisely linked chronologically with the faunal remains, which were grouped into two units, MN1/MN2 (5500/5300–5000 cal BC) and MN2 (5000–4500 BC), for analytical purposes (Mashkour et al, ). The nearby shell midden site of Umm al Quwain 38 (UAQ 38), dated to fifth millennium BC on the basis of material culture, including an Ubaid sherd, with charcoal radiocarbon determinations forthcoming, also yielded a small quantity of cattle, sheep and goat bones (c. 30 specimens in total) and large quantities of shellfish and fishes (Degli Esposti et al, ). Scattered cattle remains were also found along with quantities of fish, sheep and goats, and a surface Ubaid pottery find at Akab, a habitation site occupied from the early to mid‐fifth millennium BC (Méry & Charpentier, ).…”