Abu Dhabi - Hili

In the past two decades archaeologists have uncovered the remains of the ancient Arabian civilization of Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, the United Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman and Yemen. They have demonstrated the part played by these countries from an early time in the development of the Middle East. For instance they have shown the emergence of oases as early as 3100 BC, a new type of agricultural settlements where the first gravity irrigation systems were found. Hili 8, an archaeological site close to Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi still remains the earliest known example of a settlement of this type.

Between 1977 and 1984 the French Archaeological Mission to Abu Dhabi directed by Dr. S. Cleuziou not only excavated the site of Hili 8, but also 8 Bronze Age graves from the the 3rd millennium BC and an Iron Age settlement (Rumeilah).

In 1996 a new program began under the direction of S. Méry with the study of Hili Grave N, a collective grave from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. This had been partly excavated in the eighties by the Department of Antiquities and now we contribute to its comprehensive study and publication. Grave N is a collective grave filled with the remains of numerous human skeletons and several hundred pottery vessels, both local and imported from Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, together with stone vessels, copper objects, silver and carnelian ornaments.

Grave N should help reconstruct and understand the local funerary practices of the end of the Umm an Nar period. The study of the objects will contribute to reconstruct the network of exchanges throughout the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean in the Bronze Age, a time of vastly increasing inter-regional exchanges.