80,000-year-old tools found at Sharjah site in running for Unesco world heritage status

Humans at Jebel Faya lived and thrived in the ancient desert site challenging previously held ideas they just passed through, new research suggests

The ancient desert site of Jebel Faya. Wikimedia Commons

A new study has cast further light on the rich archaeological history of Sharjah, with the use of ancient tools highlighting how humankind adapted to its surroundings.

It has shown early humans once lived in Sharjah’s Jebel Faya region tens of thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists unearthed sophisticated stone tools now believed to be 80,000-years-old, the study says, that were crafted by skilled inhabitants designed for hunting, butchery, processing plants and crafting more implements.

The study suggests how they lived and thrived in the ancient desert site challenging previously held ideas they just passed through.

The area itself has shown evidence of human presence from 210,000 years ago.

It comes just weeks before Unesco, the UN’s cultural arm, is to decide on awarding world heritage status to the area in central Sharjah that is termed the “Faya palaeolandscape”. It refers to limestone escarpment Jebel Faya and the surrounding area.

The study was published in February in the peer-reviewed Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences journal and reported on by state news agency Wam on Wednesday.

A dig at Jebel Faya in 2014. Photo: Knut Bretzke

It is the fruit of excavations conducted between 2012 and 2017. The tools were assessed, studied and dated, with the results only now published.

Digging into the past

The project was the result of an international collaboration led by the Sharjah Archaeology Authority in partnership with the University of Tuebingen and University of Freiburg in Germany and Oxford Brookes University in the UK.

And funded by the German Research Foundation and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.

Experts believe the evidence at Jebel Faya ties human presence to the closing chapter of a climatic phase known as marine isotope stage 5a.

“Think of MIS 5a as a climatic pendulum,” said Dr Knut Bretzke, lead researcher and head of the German Archaeological Mission in Sharjah.

“Temperatures and rainfall patterns swung wildly. Monsoons from the Indian Ocean brought brief windows of rainfall that turned Arabia’s barren deserts into green patches of lakes and grasslands.”

Drawings of stone tools found at Jebel Faya. Photo: Mojdeh Lajmiri

It is thought humans seized on these moments to live there longer. The study also shows what sets the inhabitants of Jebel Faya apart is not just that they used the stone tools but how they made them.

While other sites across the north of the region have yielded triangular or ovoid tools, Faya is different. They made elongated blades and flakes using a method called “bidirectional reduction” – a calculated technique involving strikes to both ends of a stone core.

“It’s like a chef filleting a fish – each strike intentional, each angle calculated,” says Dr Bretzke. “The goal was to maximise material efficiency, preserving the raw stone for future use. It reflects deep environmental knowledge and an extraordinary level of cognitive skill.”

The results were multipurpose tools.

Faya was home to skilled early humans. Wam

Using luminescence dating, researchers were also able to determine the age of sediment layers, suggesting that early humans either continuously occupied or repeatedly returned to this site across different climate phases.

“The discoveries at Jebel Faya show that resilience, adaptability and innovation are among the most defining traits of humanity,” said Eisa Yousif, director of the SAA and one of the study’s contributors.

“These tools reflect a profound relationship between people and their land. As we advance our efforts to nominate the Faya Palaeolandscape for Unesco recognition, we are reminded of how our shared past continues to shape who we are – and who we may become.”

Unesco’s World Heritage committee is expected to make a decision at its 47th session to be held from July 7 to 16 in Paris.

The UAE has currently one site on the heritage list. The cultural sites of Al Ain were collectively added in 2011.