Oases Landscapes
At certain points in the desert, water from mountain ranges many miles distant could be drawn from aquifers deep below the ground. The discovery of these wells led to the establishment of staging posts and seasonal settlements. During the Bronze Age, around 4,000 years ago, villages grew up, together with oases where vegetables, wheat and date palms were cultivated and animals were reared. The use of “aflaj” (underground water channels) in south-east Arabia during the Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago, further encouraged the development of oases and the cultivation of date palms.
Tribes needed to exercise control over their vital water resources and, whilst Bedouin tradition decreed that hospitality be extended to friendly visitors, the threat of attack by enemies also necessitated defensive measures. Initially, this entailed only the posting of sentries to guard the village well but subsequently rudimentary watchtowers were constructed to give early warning of attack. As building methods became more sophisticated, fortifications large enough to shelter the entire village population were built. These large buildings provided security and a sense of permanence and became the centre of the community and the seat of local government. It is interesting to reflect that the towns and cities of modern-day Abu Dhabi were originally oasis settlements.
Archaeological surveys reveal that during the Neolithic or Late Stone Age period (c. 9,000 to 6,000 years ago), the now arid and inhospitable desert areas of Abu Dhabi were relatively well-watered and able to sustain both wildlife and people. However, within a millennium or so, the rains moved south, the shallow lakes evaporated and the water courses dried up. Cloudless skies not only precluded rainfall but deprived the land of a heat-retaining blanket, so that while daytime temperatures soared, at night they could drop below freezing. The ecosystem changed dramatically: birds and mammals migrated to more accommodating terrain and the early settlers of this land, with their herds of domesticated cattle, sheep and goats were forced to seek out new settlement areas.
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