New Dubai museum offers a glimpse of Iron Age civilisation thriving in Dubai some 4,000 years ago

Gulf News

New Dubai museum offers a glimpse of Iron Age civilisation thriving in Dubai some 4,000 years ago. Sarouq Al Hadid Archaeology Museum reveals the people and animals that roamed Dubai 4,000 years ago.  See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00A new museum in Shindaga Heritage Village houses findings from the Saruq al-Hadid archaeological

00:17site.

00:18The museum, which was opened to the public in July, gives a sneak peek into Iron Age

00:23civilization that thrived in Dubai some 4,000 years ago.

00:27Located at the traditional house of Sheikh Juma al-Maktoum in Shindaga Heritage Village,

00:31the Saruq al-Hadid Archaeology Museum reveals that the vast desert on the outskirts of Dubai

00:36was once a savannah where lions, deer, and snakes thrived, and people who lived in the

00:40surroundings were experts in metallic industry.

00:42Saruq al-Hadid has changed the history books here in UAE and the Gulf area.

00:49Most people think that Dubai is a new culture, but this discovery showing that Dubai has

00:56been here in the area from the Stone Age, they found some objects that belong to the

01:01Stone Age, Iron Age, and other ages as well.

01:05So this is evident that Dubai is not a new culture at all.

01:08So this is important for the historical and civilization for Dubai itself.

01:12It was during a helicopter ride over the area in 2002 that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum,

01:18Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, who discovered the archaeological

01:24site in Rub al-Khali Desert, some 70 kilometers south of the Emirates towards Abu Dhabi.

01:29Excavations that began in 2003 have so far revealed about 12,000 objects from the site,

01:35and nearly 900 of them are now on display at the new Temporary Museum.

01:38There are a variety of objects, metal objects, arrowheads, sword, gold objects, some seals,

01:47some potteries, some snakes, some statues.

01:51However, the artifacts on display are just around 5% of the objects from the site, which

01:56is spread across an area of 2.5 kilometers by 1.5 kilometers.

02:01From the objects found so far, it is believed that the site was a manufacturing area with

02:05metal factories around.

02:07This location has a huge amount of metal objects, gold, animals' bones.

02:13So this discovery leads to many questions.

02:16Who was living there?

02:17Why did they leave the place?

02:19Until now, although we cover only 10% of the location, we didn't find any human bones.

02:26So the question was, what happened to the people who were living there and who is them?

02:31So those are questions we hope to figure out.

02:36One of the most unusual objects displayed is what is believed to be a mystery anklet.

02:40The unique thing, a variety of objects, the camel anklets, or what we call the mysterious

02:46objects, a variety of collections of iron swords, a thousand of arrowheads, the gold,

02:55especially the Expo logo, it's here in the Sarok Al Haddad Museum.

03:00The museum offers state-of-the-art audiovisual presentation to showcase the discovery and

03:05excavation of the site and important findings.

03:08It features an interactive experience for young visitors using replicas of the artifacts

03:13exhibited, as well as stores that sell souvenirs.

03:16Eirish Eden-Beleza for Gulf News.

Category

Transcript

Recommended