Bidaa Bint Saud stands tall among Al Ain historical sites
RAJEEV CHERIAN (AL AIN)Offering insights into ancient community settlements, Bidaa Bint Saud, running adjacent to a caravan trail, looms large among Al Ain's array of archaeological sites.Located some 25km north of Al Ain, the caravan site, situated at the crossroads of the ancient land routes between Oman and the Arabian Peninsula, is home to significant archaeological finds dating to the Iron and Bronze Ages.The Bidaa Bint Saud site is one of Al Ain's UNESCO World Heritage sites, which include the six oases of Al Ain, and the archaeological sites of Hafit, and Hili.Chief among the archaeological finds from the site are the 5,000-year-old burial tombs, Iron Age (1,300–300 BCE) irrigation systems, a rare Iron Age building and other artefacts that indicate the area was a major stop on a possible caravan route that extended from Al Ain to the north of the UAE, according to the Abu Dhabi Culture website.The site is dominated by a natural stone outcrop, called Garn Bint Saud, which is 700 metres in length and rises 40 metres above the surrounding area.'Man inhabited the area for thousands of years, when the climate was slightly better than today and sand dunes less encroaching. The long habitation left stone-built graves and traces of the ancient settlements on and around the outcrop,' reads an inscription at the site.The archaeological findings point to Bidaa Bint Saud's emergence as a rural centre and farming community during the Iron Age.Key findings from the outcrop uncovered a number of Bronze Age (3,000–1300 BCE) tombs on the eastern side, as well as Iron Age tombs on the top of the outcrop, according to an educational resource provided by the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).Furthermore, excavations at the site yielded pottery, stone vessels, dagger blades, arrowheads and beads.'Sites to the north suggest a caravan route linked Bidaa Bint Saud to the Al Ain oases, and continued north towards present-day Dubai and the northern emirates,' it added.Archaeological digs at the site also resulted in uncovering remains of the falaj water system, an ancient irrigation method which used a network of underground and surface channels to bring water.Among the key findings include a 3,000-year-old falaj one kilometre west of Garn Bint Saud, and the remains of a public building, 'Bait al-Falaj' (House of the Falaj), which sheds light on the origins and administration of the falaj system, according to DCT Abu Dhabi.The excavations at the site were carried out by a Danish archaeological team in the 1960s, followed by experts from the Department of Antiquities and Tourism in Al Ain in the 1970s.Excavations also found a series of enigmatic paintings and engravings on the eastern rock face, among other motifs, whose origins date back to the Bronze and Iron Ages.
According to UNESCO, the Cultural Sites of Al Ain 'constitute a serial property that testifies to sedentary human occupation of a desert region since the Neolithic period with vestiges of many prehistoric cultures
Source: Aletihad - Abu Dhabi
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