Ancient UAE village at Masafi gives up its secrets

Mountain settlement's Bronze Age inhabitants imported sea shells and turned them into jewellery

Archaeologists work at Masafi 5 in 2017. There are several ancient settlements at Masafi, a town in the foothills of the UAE's Hajar Mountains. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

An excavation plan of Masafi 5, where teams have been working for more than a decade. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

There is evidence that there was a thriving agricultural village here whose inhabitants lived in terraces, grew crops and reared animals. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

The remains of fireplaces and furnaces suggest the presence of copper mining and metallurgy. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

The village is thought to have been occupied during the late Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

Bittersweet clams and an ark shell found at the ancient village, believed to be the first inland settlement in the region to have shown evidence for turning shells into adornments. Photo: Kevin Lidour

It is thought the small community may have traded pottery for raw shells with Kalba and Khor Fakkan. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

A fragment of historical jewellery found at the site. Photo: French Archaeological Mission in the UAE

Masafi, a UAE town in the foothills of the Hajar Mountains, is known for its springs and wadis.

Thousands of years ago, people were well aware of this supply of water.

Research published in the Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences journal paints a portrait of a sophisticated settlement where people grew crops, reared animals, expertly used raw materials and traded with the eastern coastal villages of Khor Fakkan and Kalba.

Several ancient settlements make up Masafi and one of them, Masafi 5, was the focus of the latest study.

'Coastal‑hinterland exchange during the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age across the northern Ḥajar mountains: the case of marine shells at Masafi 5' was written by archaeologists Kevin Lidour, Maria Paola Pellegrino and Julien Charbonnier.

It tells about the people who lived in this terraced agricultural village during the late Bronze Age and, intriguingly, how they imported sea shells from the eastern coast, and used them as tools and jewellery.

They even had a workshop to produce them on site and this sets this inland village apart, as this type of work was typically found only on the coast.

“Here at Masafi we are in the mountains,” said Dr Lidour. “It is about six hours minimum on foot from the coasts. So … to see people collecting shells on the coasts and then processing them in Masafi, that is very strange and interesting.”

Masafi is rich in history and shows evidence of occupation across several sites for thousands of years. It developed over the millennia as a strategic link between the west and east coasts.

Masafi 5 is thought to have been occupied intermittently during the late Bronze Age (1,600 to 1,300 BC) and at the beginning of the Iron Age (1,300 to 300 BC).

Excavations by the French Archaeological Mission in the UAE and in conjunction with the Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Authority took place at the site over the past decade, with the most recent ending in 2020.

The area's ancient inhabitants lived in terraces, grew crops and reared animals. The remains of fireplaces and furnaces suggest the presence of copper mining and metallurgy.

“We found remains of stone or masonry terraces, so the inhabitants were living on top of terraces,” said Dr Charbonnier, field director for the project. “There was the cultivation of cereals and dates. There is evidence they had cattle, sheep and goats and they also produced pottery and local copper.”

But it is the use of sea shells that is noteworthy. Archaeologists believe it could be the first inland town in the region to have shown evidence for turning shells into adornments such as mother-of-pearl plaques and rings made from conus shells.

It is thought the small community at Masafi might have traded pottery for raw shells with Kalba and Khor Fakkan. Much of it was for food, but they used leftover shells such as venus clam, violet asaphis and ark shell to make cutting tools.

These could be used to cut ropes and palm tree fibres, or in basketry. Other shells were turned into jewellery, containers for cosmetics and trinkets. At this time, many were making tools with metal, so why did this practice continue at Masafi?

“The production of metal tools is very specialised and something only people with knowledge of the smith can do. It is not easy,” said Dr Lidour. “But it is different with shell tools, as they are very easy to make, so this is maybe a way to explain why people were still using them during the late Bronze Age and Iron Age.”

For Dr Charbonnier, it sheds new light on a poorly understood era, as many sites were not properly excavated and studies were limited.

“This is the first time we have detailed analysis of sea shells from sites from the late Bronze Age. It shows some traditions from the Bronze Age continue to the Iron Age,” he said.

While the site has now been almost completely excavated, more studies are needed, not least to understand if other villages used shells in a similar way.

“The aim was to understand this late Bronze Age site,” said Dr Charbonnier. “This period is the transition to the Iron Age and is not very well known. We don’t really know what happened. This gave us a chance to know more about the chronology and economy and social structure of these populations of the late Bronze Age.”

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