Neolithic Life and Death in the Desert - 8 seasons of excavations at Jebel al-buhais Sabah A. Jasim, Hans-Peter Uerpmann & Margarethe Uerpmann Jebel al-buhais is the southern-most part of a chain of high rocky outcrops extending north-south from al-dhaid to al-madam in the interior of Sharjah Emirate. It forms the eastern limit of the sands and dune-fields extending inland of the Gulf coast in the Sharjah and Dubai Emirates. The outcrops separate the sands in the west from the gravel-plain to the east. The gravel plain extends from here to the main chains of the Hajar Mountains. Excavations at the Neolithic site BHS 18 started in 1995 when the spectacular graveyard at the eastern foot of Jebel Buhais was found by the local archaeological team of the Directorate of Antiquities within the Department of Culture and Information of Sharjah Emirate. Joint excavations at this exceptional site were agreed on in the same year between the Directorate of Antiquities and the Institute of Pre- and Protohistory and Medieval Archaeology of Tübingen University (Germany). Since 1996 yearly seasons of excavations co-directed by the authors took place with international teams of students and scientists from a number of institutions. Preliminary reports were given at various conferences and published in the respective conference volumes (M. Uerpmann & H.-P. Uerpmann 2000; H. Kiesewetter, H.-P. Uerpmann & S. A. Jasim 2000; M. Uerpmann, H.-P. Uerpmann & S. A. Jasim 2000; H. Kiesewetter 2003). 1
Fig. 1: Arial view of BHS 18 from east to west in 1999 From the beginning of field-work it was a major question, why a Neolithic graveyard of these dimensions (there may have been up to 1000 inhumations) was established at this particular location. There are flint extraction sites on the mountain slope and there is the green patch of the oasis of al-madam not far from here. These advantages, however, apply to a wider area and could not be seen as reasons for burying this many people at that particular spot in area with less than 20m in diameter. It was not until the season of 1999 that the most probable reason was discovered: the slope above the graveyard was covered with patches of water laid sinter. Most of these traces were highly eroded and difficult to be recognized. Remaining moisture at a spot on the slope after the winter rains of 2001 finally indicated the area where to search for the ancient source of water. Subsequent cleaning of the respective surface revealed onion-like sinter structures around what must have been a former spring mouth. Uranium/Thorium-dating at the Institute of Environmental Physics of Heidelberg University 1 of the thick sinter-layers gave dates of 368±44 ky for the deepest parts and 65,5±1,3 ky for the middle of the sinter (Holzkämper 2004). The sinter of the top layer was too "dirty" for proper dating. There is evidence, however, that the sinter-flow penetrated Neolithic burials and fireplaces at the foot of the slope, thus indicating that the spring was active during the time of Neolithic occupation of the site. 1 Many thanks are due to Prof. A. Mangini and Steffen Holzkämper for including our samples into their research. We are also grateful to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences for funding these activities. 2
Fig. 2: Concentric sinter structures on the slope above BHS 18 U/Th-dates for other sinter deposits at the slope above the graves indicated spring activity mostly during the last three interglacial periods. This goes well with the results of palaeo-climatic research on stalagmites from caves in Oman (Burns et al. 1998). Increased precipitation was always connected to warmer phases of the global climate. In particular it was found that the 5 th millennium BC was a period of monsoon activity in SE-Arabia during which the stalagmites grew. This coincides with the time-range of the radiocarbon dates from BHS 18 (comp. M. Uerpmann 2003:Fig. 1, p. 75) and seems to have been the time when the ancient spring at Jebel Buhais was flowing last. The slope close to the graveyard may have looked like the spring shown in Fig. 3. 2 There are several such springs still to be found along the northern Hajar Mountains. 2 Thanks are due to Steven Green and Gary Feulner for pointing out the area shown in Fig. 3 3
Fig. 3: Sinter-basins at an active spring in the Hajar Mountains It was a major aim of the excavations of 2003 to finally delimit the extension of the graveyard. As shown in Fig. 4 the outline of the area with graves is almost heart-shaped with the tip pointing towards the ancient spring. The indentation of the outline on the opposite side is due to a stone midden, from where numerous animal remains and flint artefacts derive. The cobble-stones of the midden are interpreted as heating-stones used in conjunction with the numerous overlapping roasting pits found in this area. The obvious spatial interconnection of graveyard and stone midden gives evidence for related activities in both these parts of the site. It should be mentioned that the density of the cross-symbols in Fig. 4 does not everywhere indicate the actual density of human bone finds. It is rather a reflection of our improving ability to handle 3-D-recording of the skeletons, the denser areas at the southern and northern edges being the most recent ones to have been excavated. The few isolated crosses to the right (east) of the graveyard do not indicate burials but single human bones, which seem to have been dislocated from disturbed graves in ancient times and thus became incorporated into the stone midden. 4
The real density of the inhumations is better demonstrated in Fig. 5, which represents the uppermost burials in Trench W 1.05. This planimetric photograph shows the remains of at least 14 individuals crowded into 2m 2. Most of them are not in primary burials, where the skulls and skeletons would be visible in side-view. Instead the burials in this area are multiple secondary burials. The burial customs documented at BHS 18 and other observations like demography, pathologies and orientation of the skeletons were already discussed at the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the UAE by H. Kiesewetter (2003) and will be subject of a forthcoming publication of the same author. Fig. 4: General distribution of human remains in the areas excavated till 2003 5
Fig. 5: Uppermost layer of burials in Trench W 1.05 In another newly excavated area (Trench S1) a number of primary burials were encountered in different stages of preservation (Fig. 7). The individuals found in this peripheral area did not seem to be as richly adorned as those in the central parts of the graveyard. Nevertheless, at least the two skeletons designated as SE and SL wore necklaces and strings of beads in the region below the ears (SL, see Fig. 6) or at the forehead (SE). The female skeleton SE also had an individual carnelian bead below the nasal opening in front of the upper lip. The rare finds of carnelian beads as far as their positions could be observed were always worn by females in the same fashion. The same is true in at least two cases for pearls, one of which was found at the upper lip of skeleton SL (pointed out by arrow in Fig. 6). 6
Fig. 6: Skull of Skeleton SL with necklace, strings of beads and pearl on the upper lip Whereas in primary burials corpses were interred in their flesh, the secondary ones were obviously buried as bundles of already defleshed bones with the skulls put on top or in front. This indicates that the remains were brought from afar in order to be finally buried at al Buhais. How far this was, cannot be detected from the available information, but certainly from a larger distance than one would have brought an intact corpse. 7
Fig. 7: Primary burials in Trench S1 8
The faunal remains from the stone midden provide further evidence for a nomadic lifestyle of the population, who buried their dead at the site. More than 90% of the animal bones were from domestic animals. Sheep and goats were more frequent than cattle, but the contribution of the latter to the diet was nevertheless remarkable because of the much larger size of cattle. While cattle were slaughtered at varying ages, the remains of sheep and goats are almost exclusively from old or mature animals with females largely prevailing. This is strong evidence for milking of these species, because if only kept for their meat they would have been slaughtered before becoming tough. Quite important is the fact that these mature goats or ewes must have had at least 5 kids or lambs before they died. As there is no evidence for slaughtering young animals at the site, such proliferation would have caused rapid population growth of the herds. An initial herd of 250 individuals would have grown to about 10,000 heads within only 11 years an increase which would have exhausted the available pastures very soon (M. Uerpmann & H.-P. Uerpmann 2000). The only possible explanation of the findings at al-buhais is that the surplus of young animals, which would inevitably have been produced, was culled at another place. Thus, the herders must have left the site at the foot of Jebel Buhais before the slaughtering time for the herd surplus had come. Thus, there is little doubt that the ancient inhabitants of the site must have been nomadic herders. 9
Fig. 8: Ground stone tools and netsinker from al-buhais 18 However, in addition to herding there also must have been a marine component within the subsistence economy of these people. Preliminary indications for major marine contributions to their diet were provided by stable carbon isotope ratios measured in the context of radiocarbon dating of human skeletal remains from al-buhais 18. Further archaeo-chemical research on palaeo-diet will be necessary once the excavations at the graveyard will have come to an end. Most remarkably, however, there is additional archaeological evidence for the fishing habits of the Buhais 18 population. One of the typical net-sinkers of the so-called Ubaid-related sites on 10
the south-eastern Gulf-coast (M. Uerpmann 1992) was found near a fire-place adjacent to the graveyard of BHS18 (Fig. 8-60341). Together with the marine origin of many of the adornments found in the graves this is strong evidence for the assumption that the Neolithic sites at Jebel Buhais and the coastal sites of the same period were seasonally occupied by the same general population. During part of their seasonal cycle they gathered near Jebel Buhais to bury their dead and to exploit the local vegetation for their animals. As deducted from the animal remains, this happened most probably in spring during the lambing and kidding period of their herds. Seasonal indicators for the coastal part of the life-cycle are somewhat controversial insofar as indications for both winter and summer were found. Winter is the main season for shellfish collecting, but summer fishing is indicated through the evaluation of fish-otoliths found in the shell midden of UAQ-2 (M. Beech 2003). In any case the hitherto evaluated coastal sites also lack the bone-finds of young herd animals. Their optimal culling time would probably have been during the second half of the year. For this part of the seasonal cycle the sites of the Neolithic inhabitants still have to be found. Other remarkable finds from BHS18 are two stone adzes (Fig. 8-53705 + 82073) and a fragment of another adze or chisel made of flint (Fig. 8-60521). Unless these objects are considered weapons rather than tools, they indicate a kind of workmanship which would not necessarily be expected at a desert site. Adzes and chisels are tools for wood-working, widespread in the Neolithic cultures of Europe, were wood was an ubiquitous raw material. Different from today, wood also seems to have been available in larger quantities at Buhais during the Late Stone Age. This is indicated not only by the adzes but also by the massive amounts of black ash found in the many roasting pits surrounding the graveyard on the north, east and south side. According to preliminary identifications the wood of acacias dominates largely among the charcoal finds (M. Tengberg, pers. comm. in 2002). A fragmented bone-needle from the graveyard is up to now a Fig. 9 unique find (Fig. 9). While the preservation of this find is clearly due to the condition of the sediments in the grave area, its connection to a particular burial is not clear. Although the needle was found in a grave pit, there was no obvious association to the 11
skeletons buried there. As is the case with many flint finds from the graveyard, the needle may have entered the pit inadvertently together with the fill. In any case it is at least contemporaneous with the respective burial or older. Most probably the needle was made out of the cortical part of a rib obtained from sheep, goat or gazelle. Although carefully ground off, faint traces of spongiosa are still to be perceived on one flat side. Accordingly, the object is slightly curved in side-view. The eye of the needle is a conical hole drilled from the slightly concave side of the specimen, which bears the traces of spongiosa mentioned above (the side shown in the drawing of Fig. 9, while the adjacent photograph shows the other side). On the other side the rim of the bore-hole is slightly rounded, presumably through use-wear caused by a gliding thread. Whether the needle was used for sewing cannot really be deduced from the find. The form of the old break indicates, however, that the needle was subjected to a bending force, which might be evidence for sewing some strong material. The two sides of the break fit together, but a thin layer of sinter prevents refitting. What the find of a needle means in terms of clothing of the ancient inhabitants can of course not be discussed at the present state of our knowledge. Fig. 10: The most numerous find-category from BHS 18 Test-trenches explored in the vicinity of are the flint artefacts. They cannot be dealt with the BHS18 graveyard (green). The section marked in red in trench T1 is here to any extent, because the usual depiction shown in Fig. 11. The fossil spring of of the more spectacular objects like bifacial Fig. 2 is located at the blue dot. foliates and the various types of arrow heads does not provide much insight into the real nature of the industry. There is the additional problem that the graves may contain older artefacts which lay on the surface at the time of grave-digging or where dug up again from older gravepits. Thus the flints from the graveyard represent a fairly broad time horizon. This is slightly 12
better within the stone midden, but again there was some old digging activity in this part of the site due to the multiple roasting pits concentrating in this area. The whole plain surrounding the graveyard and stone midden at the eastern foot of Jebel Buhais is covered by a more or less continuous flint scatter accumulated on the present surface together with younger finds ranging from Bronze Age chlorite artefacts to modern glass. No attempt was made to collect the surface artefacts. However, test trenches were opened in every direction in order to find areas with a potential for excavating Stone Age artefacts from a well stratified context. These activities are shown in Fig. 10, where the test trenches are documented. Fig. 11: Roasting pit dug into a buried surface found in Trench T1 (see Fig. 10) It was not until the field season of 2003 that an area was discovered some 80m south of the graveyard where the Neolithic surface apparently dips under the dejection cone of a wadi cutting deeply into the adjacent slope of Jebel Buhais. Several fireplaces were found on this buried Neolithic surface, the ashes of which will hopefully supply a good radiocarbon chronology for this context.. One of them is sort of a roasting pit. Its section is shown in Fig. 11. The buried Neolithic surface, from where the pit was dug, is also visible. At least one further season of excavations at this exceptional site at Jebel al-buhais will be necessary to gather the information, which hopefully will be provided by this particular context. 13
Bibliography Beech, M. (2003) The development of fishing in the U. A. E.: A zooarchaeological perspective. In: D. Potts, H. al Naboodah & P. Hellyer (eds.) Archaeology in the United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the U.A.E. Trident Press, 290-308. Burns, S., Matter, A., Frank, N., Mangini, A. (1998): Speleothem-based paleoclimate record from northern Oman. Geology 26, 499-502. Holzkämper, S. (2004) Dating and Interpretation of Secondary Carbonate Deposits from the Last Interglacial. Diss. Univ. of Heidelberg. Kiesewetter, H. (2003) The Neolithic population at Jebel Buhais 18: Remarks on Funerary Practices, Palaeodemography and Palaeopathology. In: D. Potts, H. al Naboodah & P. Hellyer (eds.) Archaeology in the United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the U.A.E. Trident Press, Kiesewetter H, Uerpmann H-P, Jasim SA (2000) Neolithic Jewellery from Jebel al-buhais. Seminar for Arabian Studies 30, 137-146. Uerpmann M (1992) Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia. AAE 3, 65-109. Uerpmann M (2003) The dark millennium Remarks on the Final Stone Age in the Emirates and Oman. In: D. Potts, H. al Naboodah & P. Hellyer (eds.) Archaeology in the United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the U.A.E. Trident Press, 73-81. Uerpmann M, Uerpmann H-P (2000) Faunal remains of Al-Buhais 18: an Aceramic Neolithic site in the Emirate of Sharjah (SE-Arabia) excavations 1995-1998. In Mashkour M, Choyke AM, Buitenhuis H, Poplin F (eds) Archaeozoology of the Near East IVB, Groningen, 40-49. Uerpmann M, Uerpmann H-P, Jasim SA (2000) Stone Age nomadism in SE-Arabia palaeoeconomic considerations on the neolithic site of Al-Buhais 18 in the Emirate of Sharjah, U.A.E. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 30, 229-234. 14
Figure captions: Fig. 1: Arial view of BHS 18 from east to west in spring 1999. The contour indicates the area of the Neolithic graveyard. Fig. 2: Concentric sinter structures on the slope above BHS 18 Fig. 3: Sinter-basins at an active spring in the Hajar Mountains Fig. 4: General distribution of human remains in the areas excavated till 2003. The green contour marks the approximate extension of the graveyard. The shaded areas were not excavated. Fig. 5: Uppermost layer of burials in Trench W 1.05 Fig. 6: Skull of Skeleton SL with a necklace of thick white beads, strings of small beads and snail-shells below the ear-region, and a pearl on the upper lip (marked by the arrow). Fig. 7: Primary burials in Trench S1. Fig. 8: Ground stone tools and pecked netsinker from al-buhais 18 (drawing I. Raidt) Fig. 9: Bone needle from BHS 18 (drawing I. Raidt) Fig. 10: Test-trenches explored in the vicinity of the BHS18 graveyard (green). The section marked in red in trench T1 is shown in Fig. 11. The fossil spring of Fig. 2 is located at the blue dot. Fig. 11: Roasting pit with dark ash layer dug into a buried surface found in Trench T1 (for position see Fig. 10). The fill of the pit and the surface layer contemporary to the pit are hatched. 15