Today was the opening of the Memories of a Journey Hajj exhibition at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. I helped with two areas within the exhibition. Firstly, with the showcase featuring nine pieces of decorated plaster stucco from the Sir Bani Yas church, and secondly with the landscape pictures taken by the Emirati photographer, Mussallem Al Darei, who accompanied myself and colleagues on a simulation of the journey which Hajj pilgrims once took along the coast of Abu Dhabi to Saudi Arabia.

Please download the brochure from: https://abudhabievents.ae/Documents/Hajj_Brochure.pdf

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism is pleased to invite you to attend a lecture entitled “Why is it Important to Study the Past?”

which will be delivered by: Dr Mark Jonathan Beech, Head of Coastal Heritage and Palaeontology, Historic Environment Department, Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism.

Dr Beech will take the audience on a journey to Abu Dhabi 65 million years ago, to a time when dinosaurs were already extinct and when Al Ain and the UAE was under the sea. The story of how the landform of the UAE was created will be told. Geological deposits in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra region provide the best evidence in the Arabian Peninsula for life during the Late Miocene, between 6-8 million years ago. This was a time when the deserts of Arabia were green. Today we can find fossils from a wide range of animals and plants which once lived there. This large diversity of everything from shells to crocodiles, rodents, birds, monkeys, hippos, and elephants were supported by a river system that once flowed through what is now the UAE, and that has long since gone dry and disappeared. Early humans mobilized themselves during climatically optimal periods and were able to spread out of Africa and eventually around the globe. Some of the earliest evidence for human populations in Abu Dhabi will briefly be discussed to show how archaeologists are beginning to piece together the culture and society of our prehistoric ancestors. The results of recent archaeological excavations on Marawah Island will be discussed providing a unique insight into Abu Dhabi’s earliest known people.

Date: Wednesday 27 September 2017

Time : 10:00 – 11:30 am

Location: Al Ain Municipality Theatre, Al Ain

NB:
Simultaneous translation is available.

Attendance 15 minutes before is preferable.

For more information, please contact Mariam Al Dhaheri on 03 711 8302 or email: aanm@tcaabudhabi.ae