THE STONE AGE

The available data about the stone in the U.A.E. is limited, but the evidence that has been gathered indicates that there were small, nomadic communities, which supplemented their diet by fishing and hunting. Recent evidence however indicates that herding and animal husbandry were also practiced. Not much of these communities remain, other than stone objects. Objects made of perishable materials such as wood and skin have long since vanished. The stone implements, which can still be found throughout present day U.A.E, consist for the most part of tanged arrowheads and tools of various kinds. These range from very crude pieces to exceptionally fine ones and belong to the Late Stone Age. Artefacts from Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) and Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) have not been yet identified. The al Ain museum has an extensive collection of blades, borers, burins, arrowheads and scrapers which have been gathered from sites only recently discovered, as well as examples from sites which have been known for a good number of years.

This section also includes examples of raw materials of flint which man utilised for his tools. The technique for making these tools starting from preparing the cores to flaking, retouching the flakes and converting them to real tools is illustrated.

The most interesting finds of this section are the arrowheads, which have been discovered at Habshan in the western province of Abu Dhabi. The areas where these find were discovered is a desert today covered with sand dunes. The discovery of these artefacts however indicates that the environment must have been more hospitable at one time. A number of arrowhead sites have been discovered in the eastern region of Abu Dhabi by Peter Rothfels over the past few years bear further witness to the change in the environment which must have taken place over thousands of years. These recently discovered sites are a good indication that the Late Stone Age culture was much wider than archaeologists expected. A large collection of artefacts collected by Rothfels was donated and displayed in this section.