Read the story, Delma Island has been centre of pearl diving for 7,000 years, say scientists, featured in The National newspaper.

BOATS AND ANCIENT HARBOURS SEMINAR

Monday 8 June 2015 – from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm.
Auditorium – 4th Floor – Tower B, Nation Towers Corniche.
Lunch provided (12:00 – 13:00 pm).

A series of talks presented by international experts to raise awareness of Abu Dhabi’s rich maritime heritage and to outline the project objectives of the Boats and Ancient Harbours initiative. This is your chance to learn about the different types of boats found in the region, the recording of traditional boats, interviews with former boat builders and users, as well as giving you an insight into the photographic and film archives relating to traditional boats and harbours of Abu Dhabi Emirate.

Programme

9:00 – 9:15 am – Dr Mark Jonathan Beech (Head of Coastal Heritage and Palaeontology section, Historic Environment Department, TCA Abu Dhabi) – Welcome and Introduction.

9:15 – 9:30 am – Dr Mark Jonathan Beech (Head of Coastal Heritage and Palaeontology section, Historic Environment Department, TCA Abu Dhabi) – The TCA Abu Dhabi Boats and Ancient Harbours Project.

9.30 – 10:00 am – Professor Dionisius Agius (Professor of Arabic and Islamic Material Culture at University of Exeter, U.K.) – The Emirati dhow: reality or romantic replica?

10:00 – 10:30 am – Dr Eric Staples (Director of Maritime Heritage Projects, Sultanate of Oman) – Reconstructing Remnants of the Sea: An interdisciplinary approach to maritime heritage.

10:30 – 11:00 am – Alessandro Ghidoni (Technical Director at Oman Maritime, Sultanate of Oman) – Dhows, Data and Documentation.

11:00 – 11:15 am – Ahmed Al Mheri (Traditional Boat Racing Coordinator, Emirates Heritage Club, Abu Dhabi) – Traditional Boat Racing and the activities of the Emirates Heritage Club.

11:15 – 11:30 am – Ahmed Ismael Al Marzouqi (Youth Sailing Coach) – Modern boat racing and the work of the Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club.

11:30 – 12:00 am – Discussion, Questions and Answers.

12:00 – 13:00 pm – Lunch.

Attendance is free, but please confirm your participation by sending an email to: Dr Anjana Reddy – anjana.lingareddy@tcaabudhabi.ae

The latest issue of the journal Anthropozoologica, Volume 49 – issue 2, dated December 2014 (Print ISSN: 0761-3032 – Online ISSN: 2107-0881), is devoted to the publication of a session held at the 11th ICAZ conference, entitled “Ancient Camelids in the Old World – Between Arabia and Europe“. The scientific editors of this volume are Marjan Mashkour and Mark Beech. The following chapters appear in the volume:

Preface
Jean-Denis Vigne, Christine Lefevre & Marylène Patou-Mathis
pg (s) 162-162

Foreword by the Scientific Editor Ancient Camelids in the Old World – Between Arabia and Europe 
Marjan Mashkour & Mark Beech
pg(s) 165–166

The Camel Today: Assets and Potentials 
Bernard Faye
pg(s) 167–176

Camels, donkeys and caravan trade: an emerging context from Barāqish, ancient Yathill (Wadi al-Jawf, Yemen) 
Francesco G. Fedele
pg (s) 177-194

Camels in Saudi oasis during the last two millennia; the examples of Dûmat al-Jandal (Al-Jawf Province) and al-Yamâma (Riyadh Province) 
Hervé Monchot
pg (s) 195-206

The camel remains from site HD-6 (Ra’s al-Hadd, Sultanate of Oman): An opportunity for a critical review of dromedary findings in Eastern Arabia
Antonio Curci, Michela Carletti and Maurizio Tosi
pg (s) 207-22 

The history of the camel bone dating project 
Caroline Grigson
pg(s) 225–235

Caravans, camel wrestling and cowrie shells: towards a social zooarchaeology of camel hybridization in anatolia and adjacent regions 
Canan Cakirlar and Rémi Berthon 
pg (s) 237-252.

Camels in Romania 
Adrian Bălăşescu
pg(s) 253–264

Recent camel finds from Hungary 
Laszlo Daróczi-cutting, Martha Daróczi-Szabo, Esther Sophia Smith, Andrea Kőrösi and Beata Tugya
pg (s) 265-280

Camels from Roman imperial sites in Serbia 
Sonja Vukovic-Bogdanovic and Svetlana Blazic
pg (s) 281-295

Camels in the front line 
László Bartosiewicz
pg (s) 297-302

The Baynunah Palaeontology conference takes place on Wednesday December 10th, 2014, at the Manarat Al Saadiyat Auditorium in Abu Dhabi. The conference runs from 9 am – 5 pm.  This programme is free; however, prior registration is required. Please call +971 2 657 5800 or email manaratalsaadiyat@tcaabudhabi.ae

The Baynunah Palaeontology project is a collaborative initiative between the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, USA. It is co-directed by Dr Mark Beech (TCA Abu Dhabi), Faysal Bibi (Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin) and Andrew Hill (Yale), but involves many participants from different institutions in the USA, Europe and the Middle East. It follows on from earlier research projects by Andrew Hill and Peter Whybrow (1), by Faysal Bibi, and by the former Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS) and the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).A large number of fossil sites of the Baynunah Formation have been discovered widely exposed over the Al Gharbia region of Abu Dhabi emirate. Most Baynunah sites have yielded fossilized bones showing a diversity of animals which lived in the Arabian Peninsula in the late Miocene Epoch, between 6 and 8 million years ago. The Baynunah rocks and fossils indicate that at this time, a river system came across the Arabian Peninsula through what is today the United Arab Emirates. The Baynunah Palaeontology conference is the first public event to be held by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority to bring the latest information about these fossil discoveries to a wider audience. We hope you enjoy the event and that you leave with a deeper appreciation for the ancient past of Abu Dhabi.

(1) Whybrow, P.J. and Hill, A. (eds.), 1999. Fossil Vertebrates of Arabia: with Emphasis on the Late Miocene Faunas, Geology, and Palaeoenvironments of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

BAYNUNAH PALAEONTOLOGY CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Wednesday 10 December 2014, 9 am – 5 pm.
Manarat Al Saadiyat Auditorium, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi.

9:00 – 9:15: Introduction & Opening welcome address by Mohammed Amer Al Neyadi (Director, Historic Environment Department).

9:15 – 9:35: Faysal Bibi, Andrew Hill and Mark Beech, 7 Million Years ago in Abu Dhabi – 30 Years of Discovery, and What It All Means.

9:35 – 9:45: Q & A.

9:45 – 10:05: Mark Beech, Abdulla Khalfan Al Kaabi, Ahmed Abdalla El Faki & Anjana Reddy, Mapping the Baynunah Formation: the TCA fossil sites geodatabase.

10:05 – 10:15: Q & A.

10:15 – 10:35: Marilyn Fox, Collecting and Preparing Baynunah Fossils.

10:35 – 10:45: Q & A.

10:45 – 11:15: Coffee Break

11:15 – 11:35: Jean-Renaud Boisserie, The evolution of hippopotamuses and the significance of the fossil hippos from the Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

11:35 – 11:45: Q & A.

11:45 – 12:05: Brian Kraatz, New small mammals of the Baynunah Formation from the Al Gharbia Region, United Arab Emirates.

12:05 – 12:15: Q & A.

12:15 – 12:30: Dhuhr Prayer Time

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch Time

13:30 – 13:50: Ilaria Mazzini, Reconstructing environmental changes in the past: The contribution of micro-crustaceans.

13:50 – 14:00: Q & A.

14:00 – 14:20: Johannes Müller & Jason J. Head, Reptiles and Amphibians of Arabia, and their Fossil History.

14:20 – 14:30: Q & A.

14:30 – 14:50: William J. Sanders, Last gomphotheres and first elephants at the crossroads of evolution: Evidence from the Baynunah Formation.

14:50 – 15:00: Q & A.

15:00 – 15:30: Asr Prayer Time & Tea Break

15:30 – 15:50: John R. Stewart, The Arabian Wetlands of the Miocene: The Avian Evidence.

15:50 – 16:00: Q & A.

16:00 – 16:20: Kevin Uno, Straight from the horse’s mouth: Isotopic
evidence for seasonality in vegetation and hydroclimate in Abu Dhabi during the late Miocene.

16:20 – 16:30: Q & A.

16:30 – 17:00: Closing Discussion.

Read about my analysis of the fish bones from archaeological sites excavated during the 2008 field season in the Farasan Islands in this new publication edited by Abdullah M. Alsharekh and Geoffrey N. Bailey. The details are as follows:

Alsharekh, A.M., Bailey, G.N., Momber, G., Moran, L.J., Sinclair, A., Williams, M.G.W., Al Shaikh N., Al Ma’Mary, A., Alghamdi, S., Al Zahrani, A., Aqeeli, A., Laurie, E.M. and Beech, M. 2014. Report on the 2008 fieldwork of the joint Saudi-UK Southern Red Sea Project.  pp. 77–158. In: A.M. Alsharekh and G.N. Bailey (eds) Coastal Prehistory in Southwest Arabia and the Farasan Islands 2004–2009 Field Investigations,  Riyadh: Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.  Series of Archaeological Refereed Studies No 15. King Abdullah Project for Cultural Heritage Care. ISBN 978-603-8136-01-0.

Attended the 48th Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the British Museum from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th July 2014.  For details of the programme click here – and for poster abstracts click here.

7 million year old fossil monkey discovered in Abu Dhabi – Specimen provides important ‘Out of Africa’monkey dispersal clues

An international team of scientists from Hunter College-City University of New York (CUNY), the Museum für Naturkunde – Berlin, Yale University, and Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) have announced the discovery of an important 6.5 to 8 million year old fossil monkey specimen from Shuwaihat Island in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region (Al Gharbia).

And the discovery, announced in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, is providing important clues as to when, and how, Old World monkeys dispersed out of Africa and into Eurasia.

Old World monkeys are a diverse, and widespread group,which include, African and Asian macaques, baboons, mangabeys, leaf monkeys and langurs. They are the most successful group of living non-human primates and although found throughout Africa and Asia today, their dispersal out of Africa and into Eurasia has never been fully understood.

“In addition to the ‘Out of Africa’events associated with human evolution, we know that Old World monkeys also originated and migrated out of Africa millions of years ago, but until now, it has been unclear as to exactly when, and how,”says Dr. Chris Gilbert, lead author of the study.  “Relative to later events in human evolution, this is sort of like ‘Out of Africa: the Prequel’”.

Previously, it was thought that some of the monkeys, particularly macaques, may have dispersed into Eurasia over the Mediterranean Basin or Straits of Gibraltar around 6 million years ago, during the Messinian Crisis when the Mediterranean Sea dried up, allowing animals to cross between North Africa and Europe.

“These fossils indicate that, instead, Old World monkey dispersal could have taken place through the Arabian Peninsula even before the Messinian Crisis,” Dr. Gilbert said.

The fossil find, a very small lower molar, was discovered in 2009.  The team determined that the tooth belonged to the earliest known guenon, which are some of the most brightly coloured and distinctive monkeys in modern African forests.

“When we found it, we were doing back-breaking sieving work searching for remains of tiny fossil rodents,”said Dr. Faysal Bibi of Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde, a study co-author and discoverer of the little molar.  “We spent many days over consecutive years sieving through tons of sand at this one site. It paid off.”

Previously, the oldest known guenon fossil was approximately 4 million years old.

“Our specimen pushes back the first appearance of the group by at least 2.5 million years, and most probably more,”said Prof. Andrew Hill of Yale University, another co-author on the study.

“It takes years of work to make such discoveries and study them,” said TCA Abu Dhabi’s Dr. Mark Beech, a study co-author. “The discovery of a tree-dwelling guenon monkey in the Abu Dhabi desert really highlights the vast ecological changes that have taken place in the Arabian Peninsula.”

The Historic Environment Department of TCA Abu Dhabi has a strategy to preserve, protect, study and promote the internationally important fossil sites found in Al Gharbia. A team of UAE specialists from the Historic Environment Department has been working closely since 2006 with a team of experts from Yale University and other renowned institutions to coordinate the research, study and publication of these fossils.

“The preservation of the Late Miocene fossil sites in Abu Dhabi emirate is of paramount importance,” said Mohammed Amer Al-Neyadi, Head of the Historic Environment Department at TCA Abu Dhabi. “It’s essential that these sites be protected to further our understanding of the ancient fossil record.”

The team stresses that future work in Abu Dhabi and the Arabian Peninsula is critical to shedding further light on the evolutionary history of monkeys and other mammalian groups.  Previous work in the region has also highlighted interesting aspects of elephant evolution.

“We still know relatively little about ancient life in the Arabian Peninsula,”said Dr. Bibi.“A rare find like this is a ‘first’ for the entire region.”

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Christopher C. Gilbert, Hunter College
cgilbert@hunter.cuny.edu
+1 212 396 6578

Dr. Faysal Bibi, Museum für Naturkunde
faysal.bibi@mfn-berlin.de
+49 30 2093 8546

Prof. Andrew Hill, Yale University
andrew.hill@yale.edu
+1 203 432 3813

Dr. Mark Beech, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority  mark.beech@tcaabudhabi.ae
+971 2 657 6221

Images of the fossil tooth in multiple angles.
Scale bar = 1mm.  Photo: Erik Lazo-Wasem.

New publication just released online….

Christopher C. Gilbert, Faysal Bibi, Andrew Hill, and Mark J. Beech. 2014. Early guenon from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, with implications for cercopithecoid biogeography and evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1323888111

I am off this weekend to the 2nd Museums in Arabia Conference, which is being held at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar from 13-16 June 2014.  Organisers: Sarina Wakefield, Open University UK & Karen Exell, UCL Qatar.

Click here to download the full programme, including abstracts (in english)

Click here to download the full programme, including abstracts (in arabic).

The inaugural Museums in Arabia conference took place in July 2012 at the British Museum, London. This first conference, entitled The Role of Museums in Arabia, was held as a special session alongside the Seminar for Arabian Studies. This was organised by Dr Mark Beech (Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority), Sarina Wakefield (Open University) and Celine Hullo-Pouyat (Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority). The session explored the role of the museum as an institution for the preservation and interpretation of heritage in a region whose past is based upon traditional practices and oral histories, and in which the intangible past has taken precedence over the preservation of the material past.

Due to the success of the first conference a second edition will be held in Doha in co-operation with UCL Qatar, The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha and the support of the Qatar National Research Fund.

Although museums have been present in the region since the 1950s, the recent investment in high-profile museums in a number of the states of the Arabian Peninsula is establishing the museum as a central form of heritage preservation, arguably overshadowing local forms of heritage performance and preservation. In addition, the mega-museum projects in, for example, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are drawing the attention of international media to the region, and such media interpretations of these developments have come to dominate the discourse.

Critical analysis of the role of museums in the Arabian Peninsula is at an early stage. This conference explores a number of themes addressing questions such as: What challenges do museums in the region face in their development? What is the nature of the heritage collected, curated and displayed in the museums? How are the museum model and the implementation of international museological expertise impacting on local forms of heritage representation? What kind of audience are the museums speaking to, and how do local communities engage with the museums? What is the nature of community vis-à-vis the museum in the region?

This conference will be of interest to academics and students working in the field of museums and cultural heritage in the region and globally, museum and cultural heritage practitioners, anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, and, more broadly, those with an interest in the socio-cultural, economic and political landscape of the region.