Archaeological Survey of Sīnīya Island, Umm al-Quwain

• Authors: Timothy Power , Federico Borgi , Michele Degli Esposti , Robert Hoyland , Rania Hussein Kannouma

Abstracts

EN

The preliminary results of a comprehensive survey of Sīnīya Island in the Khawr al-Bayḍāʾ of Umm al-Quwain are presented here. The onset of human occupation remains to be confirmed, with scarce evidence for limited activity in the late pre-Islamic period (LPI, c. 300 BC – AD 300). The first major phase of occupation dates to the seventh and eighth centuries (early Islamic period) when a monastery and settlement were established in the north-east of the island. Probably the peak occupation falls between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the stone-town of Old Umm al-Quwain 1 was built, followed by the eighteenth to early nineteenth century when the settlement moved to neighbouring Old Umm al-Quwain 2. The town was destroyed by the British in 1820 and moved to the facing tidal island, where Old Umm al-Quwain 3 (the modern city of the same name) developed. This resulted in an emptying of the landscape, and Sīnīya Island was little visited in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, except for the estate of the ruling Āl Muʿallā represented by the Mallāh Towers.

Keywords

EN

survey; maritime environment; Late Antiquity; Islamic period; UAE; Arabian Peninsula

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Études et Travaux (Institut des Cultures Méditerranéennes et Orientales de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences)
• Year: 2022
• Issue: 35
• Pages: 135-162

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Timothy Power

• United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain

• https://orcid.org/0000000165425753

author

Federico Borgi

• Italian Archaeological Mission in Umm al-Quwain, Bologna

author

Michele Degli Esposti

• Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw /Italian Archaeological Mission in Umm al-Quwain, Bologna

• https://orcid.org/0000000275440735

author

Robert Hoyland

• Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, New York

author

Rania Hussein Kannouma

• Tourism and Archaeology Department, Umm al-Quwain

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12775/EtudTrav.35.007

Biblioteka Nauki

2180002