ABU DHABI ARROWHEAD FIND NEAR OILFIELD
The study of the archaeology of the UAE began only in the late 1950s. Until then, it was wrongly believed that the UAE's arid deserts and mountains had played only a peripheral role in human development in the region. Extensive research by both local and foreign archaeological teams, including much undertaken in the deserts and coastal areas of Abu Dhabi in close association with Envionment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), has shown, however, that the UAE has played an important part in the emergence and development of maritime trade throughout the Gulf and the Indian Ocean for around 7,500 years.
Thus this new discovery of a flint arrowhead, about 3 cm long, dating back to the Late Stone Age or Neolithic period just south of the Sahil oilfield, 120 kms south-west of Abu Dhabi city during work undertaken for the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) underscores the possibility that there are many more finds to be made in the region.
The item has been identified by a leading expert on the UAE's Late Stone Age, who has noted that arrowheads of this type were widely manufactured locally between the 6th to 4th Millennium BC. The raw material used in the manufacturing of this arrowhead may originally have come from the western slopes of the mountains, in the border area between the UAE and Oman.
While similar artifacts have been reported from elsewhere in the desert areas of Abu Dhabi, for example near the Bab oilfield and south of the Liwa Oasis, this is the first artifact of its type known to have been collected in the immediate vicinity of the Sahil and Asab oilfields, both operated by the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO).