A new study has cast further light on the rich archaeological history of Sharjah, with the use of ancient tools highlighting how humankind adapted to its surroundings.
It has shown early humans once lived in Sharjah’s Jebel Faya region tens of thousands of years ago.
Archaeologists unearthed sophisticated stone tools now believed to be 80,000-years-old, the study says, that were crafted by skilled inhabitants designed for hunting, butchery, processing plants and crafting more implements.
The study suggests how they lived and thrived in the ancient desert site challenging previously held ideas they just passed through.
The area itself has shown evidence of human presence from 210,000 years ago.
It comes just weeks before Unesco, the UN’s cultural arm, is to decide on awarding world heritage status to the area in central Sharjah that is termed the “Faya palaeolandscape”. It refers to limestone escarpment Jebel Faya and the surrounding area.
The study was published in February in the peer-reviewed Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences journal and reported on by state news agency Wam on Wednesday.
It is the fruit of excavations conducted between 2012 and 2017. The tools were assessed, studied and dated, with the results only now published.
Digging into the past
The project was the result of an international collaboration led by the Sharjah Archaeology Authority in partnership with the University of Tuebingen and University of Freiburg in Germany and Oxford Brookes University in the UK.
And funded by the German Research Foundation and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.
Experts believe the evidence at Jebel Faya ties human presence to the closing chapter of a climatic phase known as marine isotope stage 5a.
“Think of MIS 5a as a climatic pendulum,” said Dr Knut Bretzke, lead researcher and head of the German Archaeological Mission in Sharjah.
“Temperatures and rainfall patterns swung wildly. Monsoons from the Indian Ocean brought brief windows of rainfall that turned Arabia’s barren deserts into green patches of lakes and grasslands.”
It is thought humans seized on these moments to live there longer. The study also shows what sets the inhabitants of Jebel Faya apart is not just that they used the stone tools but how they made them.
While other sites across the north of the region have yielded triangular or ovoid tools, Faya is different. They made elongated blades and flakes using a method called “bidirectional reduction” – a calculated technique involving strikes to both ends of a stone core.
“It’s like a chef filleting a fish – each strike intentional, each angle calculated,” says Dr Bretzke. “The goal was to maximise material efficiency, preserving the raw stone for future use. It reflects deep environmental knowledge and an extraordinary level of cognitive skill.”
The results were multipurpose tools.
Using luminescence dating, researchers were also able to determine the age of sediment layers, suggesting that early humans either continuously occupied or repeatedly returned to this site across different climate phases.
“The discoveries at Jebel Faya show that resilience, adaptability and innovation are among the most defining traits of humanity,” said Eisa Yousif, director of the SAA and one of the study’s contributors.
“These tools reflect a profound relationship between people and their land. As we advance our efforts to nominate the Faya Palaeolandscape for Unesco recognition, we are reminded of how our shared past continues to shape who we are – and who we may become.”
Unesco’s World Heritage committee is expected to make a decision at its 47th session to be held from July 7 to 16 in Paris.
The UAE has currently one site on the heritage list. The cultural sites of Al Ain were collectively added in 2011.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
Company%20profile
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Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
