Author : Peter Hellyer
ISBN# : 1 86063 024 3
80 pages, hardback

Until recently, little was known of the history of human settlement on the coast and islands of Abu Dhabi, largest of the territories that make up the United Arab Emirates. Apart from one major archaeological site on the island of Umm Al Nar, dating back to the Third Millenium BC, relatively little work had been done on Abu Dhabi's 300 kilometers of coastline and more than 100 offshore islands, and a false impression had grown up that the arid climate had meant that the desert landscape had been home only to a few scattered pearl-divers, nomads and fishermen.

Over the past six years, however, surveys and excavations by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Surveys, ADIAS, have shown that the area has been settled for thousands of years. Working with the direct encouragement and support of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the ADIAS team has made major discoveries, including a 7,000-year-old settlement and the largest pre-Islamic Christian monastic settlement anywhere in eastern Arabia. As ADIAS Director Dr Geoffery King, of London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, puts it, the discoveries are filling in the blanks on the historical map of Arabia.

Written by the ADIAS Co-ordinator, this book outlines in an easily readable style the results of the first six years of the project's work, explaining why the coast and islands of Abu Dhabi are increasingly coming to play an important role in Arabian archaeology.