The UAE, and Abu Dhabi in particular, are part of a vast desert wilderness occupying most of the Arabian Peninsula. It is an extremely arid landscape with habitats and communities adapted to survive on low seasonal rainfall and extremes of temperature.
The aptly named Empty Quarter, one of the most inhospitable areas of the earth’s surface, was a very different place between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago when climatic conditions were less harsh. Traces of ancient lakes, dried-up river beds, long disused caravan routes, and the remains of settlements in now waterless areas indicate a gradual climatic change over time. Human life here has been mostly a nomadic, frugal existence typified by migratory Bedouin tribes. For centuries there has been a close tie between Arab tradition and the natural world, based on the teaching of the Quran. Nomadism was centred on the oasis, as the tribe and their livestock moved from one grazing ground to another with the changing of seasons in an effort to avoid over-exploitation of scarce resources.
Dunes up to 300 metres high cover much of the Empty Quarter, but these massive sand hills are not stable and progressive wind erosion has started to expose evidence about the life of southern Arabia’s early inhabitants. In 2003, an archaeological survey in the Umm al Zumul region, near the borders of Saudi Arabia and Oman, revealed the area to be rich in history. Thousands of flint tools were found, including numerous arrowheads and a number of unusual crescent-shaped flint tools that were probably used to smooth the shafts of wooden arrows. These finds suggested that the area’s inhabitants spent at least part of their time hunting.
The Umm al Zumul area was undoubtedly a focal point for human activity because of the presence of water. Geo-archaeological investigations of the area point to there having been extensive ancient lakes there. Finds of stone mortars, associated with flint tools, indicate that the people ground grain and processed plants as part of a reasonably varied diet. This also indicates that there was probably good grazing in this area for their animals.
It is quite likely that the region was inhabited on a seasonal basis. Two beads, made from sea shells, prove that these people had connections with the coast and may have spent part of each year living off fish and aquatic mammals, moving inland at favourable times to take advantage of the vegetation and cooler temperatures.
There follows a considerable gap in terms of occupation evidence within the desert areas of Abu Dhabi until the Late Islamic period, particularly the 17th and 18th centuries, when significant quantities of imported pottery, mostly from Iran, start to appear. This may reflect the emergence and rise of the Bani Yas tribal confederation. This huge apparent gap in human activity, between the Late Stone Age and the Late Islamic periods, reflects the deeply inhospitable nature of the Arabian Desert.
Today the UAE has a bi-seasonal climate with an extremely hot summer from May to October, with day-time temperatures exceeding 45˚C and almost no rain, and a much wetter winter from November to April, with night-time temperatures dropping to 4˚C or lower in the mountains, which receive the bulk of the rainfall.
A growing population, changing economy and the desire for a modern lifestyle are placing increasing pressure on the region’s fragile ecosystem and determined efforts, initiated by HH the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, are being made to preserve it.