At this time, many were making tools with metal, so why did this practice continue at Masafi? Other shells were turned into jewellery, containers for cosmetics and trinkets. These could be used to cut ropes and palm tree fibres, or in basketry. Much of it was for food, but they used leftover shells such as venus clam, violet asaphis and ark shell to make cutting tools. It is thought the small community at Masafi might have traded pottery for raw shells with Kalba and Khor Fakkan. Archaeologists believe it could be the first inland town in the region to have shown evidence for turning shells into adornments such as mother-of-pearl plaques and rings made from conus shells. There is evidence they had cattle, sheep and goats and they also produced pottery and local copper.”īut it is the use of sea shells that is noteworthy. “There was the cultivation of cereals and dates. “We found remains of stone or masonry terraces, so the inhabitants were living on top of terraces,” said Dr Charbonnier, field director for the project. The remains of fireplaces and furnaces suggest the presence of copper mining and metallurgy. The area's ancient inhabitants lived in terraces, grew crops and reared animals. Masafi 5 is thought to have been occupied intermittently during the late Bronze Age (1,600 to 1,300 BC) and at the beginning of the Iron Age (1,300 to 300 BC).Įxcavations by the French Archaeological Mission in the UAE and in conjunction with the Fujairah Tourism and Antiquities Authority took place at the site over the past decade, with the most recent ending in 2020. It developed over the millennia as a strategic link between the west and east coasts. Masafi is rich in history and shows evidence of occupation across several sites for thousands of years. So … to see people collecting shells on the coasts and then processing them in Masafi, that is very strange and interesting.” “It is about six hours minimum on foot from the coasts. “Here at Masafi we are in the mountains,” said Dr Lidour. They even had a workshop to produce them on site and this sets this inland village apart, as this type of work was typically found only on the coast. It tells about the people who lived in this terraced agricultural village during the late Bronze Age and, intriguingly, how they imported sea shells from the eastern coast, and used them as tools and jewellery. Dr Kevin Lidour, Emirati-French Archaeological Mission in the UAE ^ "Fire guts Friday Market in Masafi".^ "Browsing the Masafi roadside market".Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. : CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) Honour is in contentment : life before oil in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and some neighbouring regions. ^ "French archaeological team discoveries in Fujairah".In 1980, the company was the sponsor of the first Masafi Car Rally, a popular annual event no longer held. Capable of producing 90,000 bottles an hour, the plant produced, until 2017, the only bottled water in the UAE labelled as mineral water, changing its branding to identify as 'Deep Earth Water'. The company's 250,000 m² bottling plant is located in the northern part of the town, part of Ras Al Khaimah. Masafi is a branded producer of bottled water, juices and other consumer goods such as tissue paper. Ĭlimate data for Masafi, United Arab Emirates Masafi was the site of a rough airstrip used by the Trucial Oman Scouts. Īt the turn of the 20th century, Masafi was a village of some 50 houses, with the villagers being split between the Sharqiyin and Mazari tribes, with some 30 cattle, 350 sheep and 5,000 date palms. The fort encloses an exceptional example of a falaj, an underground waterway constructed to channel water from the mountains to the oasis towns of the interior. The road from the inland town of Dhaid splits at Masafi, leading to Dibba to the north and Fujairah City to the south.Ī number of excavations point to Bronze Age habitation in Masafi, which has a recently restored (2012) stone and adobe fort, smaller but architecturally similar to the nearby Al Bithnah Fort, also restored as part of the same project. Until relatively recently, with the construction of the Sharjah to Kalba road and the 'truck road' between Dibba and the 311 highway at Ras al-Khaimah, the road through Masafi was the only route from the interior to the East Coast of the UAE. A Falaj (man-made underground aquifer) at Masafi Fort
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