Pearling history on display

Delma Island, once the centre of the country's pearl trade, retains a rich archaeological heritage. Hand-woven baskets, early pearl measuring devices and other artefacts of the island's past are on show at the Lulu Centre museum. The three-room building, built in the 1920s, is the oldest inhabited structure on the island. Its roof is thatched with sandalwood from Zanzibar and its walls are made of gypsum and coral.

It was the site where ship captains and divers would haggle over the price of their pearls with traders from Iran, Bahrain and India. Renovated in 1993, the museum is now free to the public. It displays not only fragments of the island's cultural past, but also its geographic history. The island was formed millions of years ago by a small underwater volcano. Evidence of this past can be seen in the large chunks of quartz and haematite on display.

Fathy Mohammed Abdullah, an archaeologist and curator, said the museum had about 100 visitors a month, mostly Emirati students visiting on school trips. Occasionally "there are foreigners. But not a lot". Next to the centre is the island's oldest mosque, which is still in use. A simple white structure, also about 80 years old, its pillars and walls have little ornamentation. It is lit by electrified versions of oil lamps that would have been commonplace a century ago.

jgerson@thenational.ae