DABUI: Archaeologists say they have found the oldest pearling town in the Gulf on an island off one of the northern sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates.
Artefacts found in this town on Siniyah Island in Umm al-Quwain, likely once home to thousands of people and hundreds of houses, date as far back as the region’s pre-Islamic history in the late sixth century. While older pearling towns have been mentioned in historical texts, this represents the first time archaeologists say they have physically found one from this ancient era across the nations of the Gulf.
“This is the oldest example of that kind of very specifically Khaleeji pearling town,” said Timothy Power, an associate professor of archaeology at the United Arab Emirates University, using a word that means “Gulf” in Arabic. “It’s the spiritual ancestor of towns like Dubai.”
The pearling town sits on Siniyah Island, which shields the Khor al-Beida marshlands in Umm al-Quwain, an emirate 50km (30 miles) northeast of Dubai. The island, whose name means “flashing lights” likely because of the effect of the white-hot sun overhead, has already seen archaeologists discover an ancient Christian monastery dating back nearly 1,400 years. –Agencies
