Answers to ancient secrets sought

Press, 17 December 1988, Page 38

Answers to ancient secrets sought

NZPA-Reuter Dubai A band of European archaeologists is labouring through the desert winter to uncover the 2000-year-old secrets of the abandoned city of Ad Door. “This city is definitely the largest settlement of its time in the southern Gulf,” Professor Ernie Haerinck of Belgium’s Ghent University said amid the excavations at Ad Door, 60km from the booming modern trade centre of Dubai. The ancient city, also named in some old texts as Omana, was on both the sea and land trade routes from Rome and Greece to India and Mesopotamia. It flourished between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D., living off the trade between the super-Powers of the time — the Roman Empire to the west, Parthia in what is now Iran and Iraq, and India and China to the East. Archaeologists from the universities of Ghent, Copenhagen, Lyon and Edinburgh are now working together to try to solve the mystery of why it was deserted by its inhabit-

ants, known as the “fish eaters” by their contemporaries. “There is no trace of destruction,” said Haerinck, who has ruled out a foreign invasion. Possible reasons for the exodus include a shift in the local balance of power, a change in trade routes, a scarcity of water, or a combination of all three at a time when the Roman Empire was in decline. Found by an Iraqi team in 1974, Ad Door is being explored for the second consecutive year by groups from the four universities which take sixweek turns in the winter when the heat lessens. The ruler of the nearby Gulf emirate of Umm alQaiwain supports their efforts by supplying workers and materials. Workers sift fine brown sand from graves and houses in the search for artefacts which might yield clues to the fate of Ad Door. The city, stretching over four square kilometre, is sheltered by sand dunes and has a shallow natural harbour. So far the teams have

excavated a temple, complete with altars, a well, some houses and several graves, most of which were robbed in antiquity, as well as a fort built later by the Iraqis. “We found some graves untouched (by robbers) which gave us valuable information,” Haerinck said. “Some contained Roman glassworks, coins, pottery and ivory articles.” A mint for coins found in one grave named the ruler of the city as “Abiel, the ruler of Hagar.” But very little is known about why the residents of Ad Door left or where they went. The Arabian peninsula is believed to have been inhabited for almost 4000 years and the archaeologists estimate that people settled at the site of what later became Ad Door as long ago as 1000 B.C. Haerinck described the research work as a unique European effort. “We share all information we find,” he said, adding that finds were sent back for analysis to whichever of the four universities had the most expertise in that field.