(1200-300 BCE)

1st Millennium BCE Climate

Change
Iron Age (1200-300 BCE)
 Iron Age (1200-300 BCE)
Iron I (1200-1000 BCE) Iron II (1000-600 BCE) Iron III (600-300 BCE)
Tell Abraq Tell Abraq Tell Abraq
Shimal Shimal
Rumeilah Rumeilah
Hili 2, 14, 17 Hili 2, 17
Al-Thuqaiba Al-Thuqaibah
Kalba
Al-Hamriyah
Qarn Bint Saud
Umm Safah
Muweilah
Nud Ziba
Iron Age I
 Fish/Shellfish
 Domestic sheep/goat/cattle
 Gazelle, oryx, dugong, etc.
 Continuity of ceramic styles from Late
Bronze Age
 Contact with Iran, Mesopotamia
(Elamite seal from Tell Abraq)
 Iron Age (1200-300 BCE)
Iron I (1200-1000 BCE) Iron II (1000-600 BCE) Iron III (600-300 BCE)
Tell Abraq Tell Abraq Tell Abraq
Shimal Shimal
Rumeilah Rumeilah
Hili 2, 14, 17 Hili 2, 17
Al-Thuqaiba Al-Thuqaibah
Kalba
Al-Hamriyah
Qarn Bint Saud
Umm Safah
Muweilah
Nud Ziba
Iron Age II
 “explosion in settlement”
Falaj irrigation
○ Cereal crops
○ Hoes
○ Fortified settlements (Hili 14)

Hili 15 Qarn bint Saud falaj

Rumeilah
 Large public building
 Large houses
 Falaj
Muweilah
 Columned building
 (Building II)
 Stone bases for
wooden columns

 Bronze production
 Ceramic vessels
 Iron (first use)
 Inscription with
earliest Arabian
writing from
Muweilah
Camel Domestication
Iron III
 Burnished Maroon Slipped Ware
Administration
 Fortified settlements
 Columned halls
 Stamp seals
 Hierarchy, administration
Religion—Serpent cult
 Al Qusais
Burial from National story
 Sarooq al Hadid
Contacts
 Iran
Elamite Seal (Iron I)
Iron III
○ BMSW Pottery from Iran
○ Persian satrapy (province) of Makah
 Backgroud: Relief from
the tomb of Darius II at
Persepolis,
 Foreground: Short sword
from al Qusais
Contacts
 Iran
Elamite Seal (Iron I)
Iron III
○ BMSW Pottery from Iran
○ Persian satrapy (province) of Makah

 Mesopotamia
Cuneiform texts documenting copper from Magan

 India
Who were the Iron Age
peoples of the UAE?
 “[The people of” the Iron Age practiced a
life similar to the Arab tribes. Therefore,
I think that the Iron Age people were the
ancestors of these tribes.” ( Al Takriti
qtd. in Hellyer 1993)
 Connections with Yemen?
Skeletal changes from Wadi Suq
South Arabian writing