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Under
the Patronage of H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan
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The
Emirates Natural History Group, Al Ain Chapter, PO Box
18057, Al Ain
September,
2004– Issue #220 |
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Welcome!
and Welcome Back ! - A New Season Begins |
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The group meets on
the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the Intercon
hotel for an 8:00 pm presentation by a variety of speakers.
Membership is 50 Dh for a single, or 80 Dh for a family.
Friday mornings generally finds a group heading out
to a wadi, an oasis, a mountain or perhaps to an underground
falaj. New members are alweays welcome. Full family
participation is encouraged. The youngest participant
was still in the snuggly on one outing, and I'm not
telling the age of the oldest participant, but she climbed
Jebel Qatar with hardly a pause and put some 50 year
olds to shame!
It has become expected that
the group lead a Friday morning outing, and we try hard
to vary these - wadis, oases, mountains, sandy dunes
and ancient townsites all are within easy access. We
hope to see you soon. |
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| This broadsheet is published
free to families in the Al Ain area. If you are a member planning
an activity with a natural history theme please notify us so that
others can join you. Everybody is able to contribute to ENHG and Emirates
recordings. For further of our activities please visit our website:
www.enhg.org or join our e-mail discussion group at Topica.com. The
Group meets at 7.30pm on 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the month, usually
at the Intercontinental Hotel, check Topica for details. New Members
are welcome. |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September,
2004– Issue #220 |
Nizwa,
Oman - Weekend Outing
Last April the group
went on a trip to Nizwa - the trip was sooo fantastic
it took some extra time to prepare this article
by Geoff Sanderson |
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The Nizwa trip has become a ritual for the Al Ain Group and
each year there are new members who have never been there and
established members who want to go back. With any trips, the
time factor is all important and fortunately we are close enough
to Nizwa for it to be a comfortable Wednesday night to Friday
night return trip. It is, allowing for border crossing, about
a 3 hour journey via Mezyad border post (Jebel Hafeet). The
Hilton carpark is the best launching pad as it is at the beginning
of the route to Mezyad.
Travelling
to Nizwa in the evening means you miss the first sight of the
high mountains, about 20 minutes after Ibri. If possible we
try to get away earlier, jobs pending, to hit the mountains
at sunset. Wow what a sight. They rise over 2000 metres straight
out of the plains. The rest of the journey, until near Bahla,
has the high mountains on the left and first the plains then
lower hills to the right. We travel straight through to Nizwa
Wednesday night, reaching the Magan Guest House (or wherever
else you stay) at a time when a restaurant is needed. Food is
basic so keep expectations modest to low.
Thursday morning after a night on Magan’s firm beds we
leave at 8.00am with about 24 people. That is a workable number
and even then we split the group, some go to the 3000+ m high
Jebel Shams to do the cliff walk, almost an all day journey;
others visit several “pet” sites at a much lower
altitude. Amongst the ‘pets’, Tanuf, the ruined
mud walled village is first, en route to Bahla and Fort Jabrin.
Tanuf is set near the entry to Wadis Tanuf and |
The village at the end of
the cliff walk on Jebel Shams located beside the waterway,
just above the cathedral fault.
photo by Will Moore
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together make a fascinating awakening to the
heritage and grand scenery of the region.
After Tanuf we travel to Fort Jabrin aiming to get there before
the tour buses, we have managed it so far. Our favorite tour
guide Hamad is always there to greet us, beaming and bouncing
about the place eager to show us this very special attraction.
Fort Jabrin is beautifully restored and on the “must visit”
list. If you have not been there well, you must.
We spend a good two hours at Jabrin then we have to race back
to Bahla to get to the Souk before it starts to shut down for
lunch. I vow that the next trip to Nizwa will have a 7.30 am
start from the Guest House (or earlier) so we can spend enough
time at the Bahla souk as well as get to the potter. It’s
all rather squeezy unless bed can be exchanged for being on
the road.
Bahla Souk has the now famous
silver smithing brothers, who smile lovingly at us as they empty
their buckets of |
The potter's kilns at Bahla
- probably modeled on the same
design as the 1000 yr old copper smelting kilns we find
signs
of all over the region
photo by Geoff Sanderson
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old silver jewellry on the
floor and rub hands together with glee as the ladies ooh
and ah over pieces they last saw in a National Geographic
magazine.
Dragging folk away
from the Souk to reach the potter before 1pm is a struggle.
The potter and his family live in a cottage on a very
narrow street and it is here that ENHG newcomers start
to realize why we restrict the numbers of both people
and trucks. There is nowhere to park more than 5 trucks
and even 5 is a squeeze. Our potter, nonetheless would
welcome the world if they could fit. He and his delightful
large family are keen to have us stay, of course to buy
pots, but that almost seems as a by the way when the family
turns out to chat. The potter’s kilns are just a
short walk away.
From the
squeeze of Bahla Potter we will, in time |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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Nizwa,
Oman - Weekend Outing cont... |
visit the restored Bahla Fort but this
is very much future tense as it is
way off completion. Bahla Fort, Bahla village and oasis,
collectively |
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form a World Heritage
site and a worthy one at that.
Rumbling
stomachs drive us to Wadi Ghul, the dramatically deep wadi at
the foot of Jebel Shams where lunch spots beckon amongst huge
boulders and waving Date Palms.
There is no such thing as a free lunch because wadis kids have
spotted us from miles away and before you can say Jack O’Shaunes-sy
they are before us with woven goat hair mats, woven goat hair
key rings and woven goat hair whatsits. We have been kind to
them in the past and will continue to be.
Way above us the other group is still on the cliff walk heading
to or sitting at the amazing village that clings to the mountainside.
The village, now abandoned is as it has been when occupied;
although it sees few visitors because of the difficult access.
The place reminds us of the tenacity of mountain people along
with a desire to escape the tribal warring that was once a way
of life (and death) in these parts.
After lunch we retrace our steps for a while then turn off to
Al Hamrah, a still partly occupied ancient mud wall village
that sits on a rock slope at the foot of the mountains. Al Hamrah
is a quite beautiful sight from the high point above the town.
The view extends beyond the village to the Date Palms filling
the valley below. Small mosques and old houses as well as the
village proper with its many alleyways, marvelous doorways and
3 storey mud brick houses fringe the oasis.
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Al Hamrah village - note
the 3-stories - all mud-brick
photo by Geoff Sanderson
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| Way above Al Hamrah
is the mountain village of Misfah, once reached by a very tricky
donkey track but now (almost sadly) by the donkey track with
a tarmac coating. Here again you will be quick to discover that
motor cars were not planned for. The village, now more accessible,
is seeing more and more visitors; quickly filling the few parking
spaces and at times testing the tolerance of the locals. It
is the most charming of all the places we visit, despite its
rather treacherous water and feet polished rocks to be negotiated
as we clamber from terrace to terrace. |
The Nizwa goat souq, Friday
morning - What better way to judge
your meat?
photo by Will Moore |
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Misfah
is the last destination before returning to Nizwa. From
high up the mountainside we look ac-ross a valley soaked
by the setting sun. Descending, we watch the pink light
washing the mountain peaks and turning any clouds a flamingo
colour. It is around this time that the cliff walkers
have also made it down and maybe knocking on the Bahla
potter’s door for a taste of what the rest enjoyed
that day.
It is usually a
pretty tired group that struggles up the stairs at Magan
Guest House somewhere around 6 to 7 pm ready for a wash
and a feed.
Friday morning
is time to buy a goat, not for breakfast though. The famous
Nizwa Goat market begins circling the Date Palms at sunrise.
Sellers cir-cle with their goats and the buyers spread
along the route offering a price for the goat that takes
their eye. |
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| Both men and women
are sellers and buyers. The goat souq is on the edge of the
rest of the souq, a mind bending display of fruit, vegetables,
fish, meat, coffee, spices, dates, muskets and general hardware,
clothing, jewelry, metal work, and lots of locals chatting,
hawking and being generous with their pleasant demeanor. Brien
Holmes is usually found in the backroom of the coffee seller’s
shop: the shop sign says nothing about coffee, but the aroma
is a dead give away. By 10.00am after an 8.00am arrival at the
souq, most folk have done their buying and are ready to hit
the road for Al Ain. |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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Nizwa,
Oman - Weekend Outing cont... |
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I managed to persuade a few, at this last trip, to come with
me to Manah, about 15kms out of Nizwa. This is a magni-ficent,
now abandoned, mud wall village built by the tribes that left
the Queen of Sheba’s Marib Dam area of Yemen, about 400
years ago. When the dam broke they high tailed it to this part
of Oman bringing with them the construction skills still seen
in Yemen’s capital, Saana.
Manah is an extraordinary place well worth delaying the return
trip to Al Ain. There are caves under the township where goods
were stored and where women and children hid during raids. Not
many raids would have succeeded however as the city has a double
outer wall. The plaster work in the mosques and the carved doorways
are memorable as are the myriad of alleyways, twists and turns.
By somewhere between 12 and 1 it is
time for the return trip to Al Ain, a time when you start to
feel sorry for the drivers. The Nizwa trip is indeed a great
journey, one you will never forget and you will carry an irresistible
urge to return. |
The ancient mud-brick city
of Manah - a cool passage-way.
photo by Geoff Sanderson
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| Ibri
- Reccy and Upcoming Trip |
| Back in July, a small
band of heat-resistant ENHGers drove out to Ibri to reconnoiter
for a future trip. We had "passed through" on several
occasions on our way to Jebel Shams, Nizwa, Wahiba, etc. but
had never properly explored this region. As it is only a couple
hours down the road, it seemed a good place to look. Here are
some excerpts from Geoff's diary of their trip. |
Wednesday, 14th
July
A small
group of hardy, weather beaten travelers left Al Ain Wednes-day
afternoon with the temperature hovering around 46 deg.
The border had its predictable delay and took about an
hour, leaving us about 20 minutes of light before the
night des-cended. Duplication of the road to Ibri is not
far off completion but in its incomplete state there was
a bit of guesswork for drivers from time to time. Nonetheless,
an easy trip and we sat at the dining table at the licensed
Ibri hotel by 9.00pm. Ibri Hotel is very good, inexpensive
(15.8 OR for a single and 21.2 OR for a double), food
is good, beds good, no complaints. |
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Salayf skyline across the wadi - "The sight
of the fort silhouetted above the ridgeline must have
been very welcoming for those weary travelers."
photos
by Will Moore |
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Thursday, 15th July
Thursday morning we were on the road
that leads to Nizwa, at 6.00am. We only had a short drive to
Salayf Fort. In the early morning light the fort was a dramatic
sight glaring down from the escarpment. The vast limestone shelf,
pitches westward, offering a perfect elevated site for the fort
with views east and west. At the entrance there is half the
original door in place and the other half lies in charcoaled
ruin. The light is superb for photography at 6.30am so we shuttered
away as we climbed the rough lime-stone ways through splendid
decaying houses with the water jug ropes hanging empty, some
ceilings collapsed by the rain, discarded Korans scattered over
the floor of the mosque and old doors closed for the last time.
For at least a thousand years, Salayf was a major stopover for
the camel caravans carrying Frankincense from Salalah as well
as many other tradable goods. |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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Ibri
- Reccy and Upcoming Trip cont... |
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The sight of the fort silhouetted above the ridgeline must have
been very welcoming for those weary travelers. The sloping shelf
extends upward and eastward above the fort to the watchtower.
The light shimmered and shadowed its way over the white cobbley
stone resting on the white mosques and minarets of Salayf and
its extensive oasis below.
A little further on we were both educated
and entertained by a farmer who was so pleased to introduce
us to the many varieties of dates now in their full and glor-ious
colour (something you do not experience at other times of the
year). Varieties included the orange coloured Barrot (we think
that is the way the sound is spelt), the red
of Khanezi, yellow of Khalasa, Mun and Khasab. It was a revelation
to learn that the much sought after Khalasa or Khalas, the ultimate
date, came from Ibri and Salayf, a fact not readily revealed
by those in the UAE.
By the time we had finished at the oasis,
after no less than five skink pursuits, it was nearing 10 am
and the temperature was pushing 41deg, though we were not feeling
oppressed.
Friday, 16th July
There are days in our lives,
even moments that make it all worthwhile being here. Friday
16th July was one such day. By 6.00am we were on the way to
Al Ayn (Oman’s Al Ayn) In the distance, through the mist,
Jebel Mischt took shape, almost high enough to be a cloud. The
sharpness of morning light held the Jebel in clear outline but
that was all, the rest was in shadow. |
The stairway leading up to
the fort from the water reservoir.
photos
by Will Moore |
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| Al Ayn
Necropolis in front of Jebel Mischt - note the line
of tombs along the rise.
photo
by Geoff Sanderson |
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| Then as we rounded a bend
in the wadis there it was, the Al Ayn Nec-ropolis, a line
of tombs punctuating the ridge top. Nothing could, this
day, surpass the grandeur and wonder of this sight, man’s
tiny marks silhouetted against the might of Jebel Mischt.
Only at this time with mist, bright light and shadow could
the scene be quite so stunning. I just stood and stared,
emotional, inspired, deep in wonder. Sint was rich with
the vivid colours of ripening dates adding a wonderful
dimension to the trip, a dimension that only the July
traveler would experience. |
|
Our friendly Shebab advised
the road to Sent was straight, no worries. My sixth sense told
me it couldn’t be that easy but I decided to paint a rosy
picture for Bob, he was driving.
It was here that we had our first
view of Sent, several hundred metres below the road, a beautifully
maintained oasis and open fields stretching along the white
stoned Wadis Al Ala. Further upstream was the village hugging
the hillside. Some of the village was in a newer vernacular
and much of it still in the original stone. No abandoning of
the old village here, no wholesale shifting to a new site, the
old mixed with the new, real organic village growth. We discovered
enough space to park about 5 “trucks” (Brien’s
alias for 4 WD’s) and there is a fascinating walk awaiting
a winter time trip. The walk would take us along the ‘white’
wadis, return through the oasis and then up through the village.
I am certain the villagers would welcome us, as is the Omani
tradition. |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
|
Map
Corner - Jan Huyghen Van Linschoten
(1563-1610)
by Peter Hudson
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A Dutchman; an adventurer and a traveler! By today's standards
this map maker would be called a spy! He joined the service
of the Portu-guese Archbishop of Goa and through that office
traveled extensively throughout the Indian Ocean and South East
Asia before returning to Amster-dam in 1592.
There he settled down and wrote his autobiography with a full
account of the regions he had traveled in. He proved to be an
able commentator on what he had seen both as an eyewitness and
in what he had learned from the Portuguese archives in Goa.
His account, “The Itinerario”
was first published in 1596 and contained a number of fine maps
possibly copied from manuscript originals by the Portuguese
Bartolemeo Lasso. As the Portuguese jealously guarded such materials
in the interests of strategic security, Linschotens maps are
among the finest to appear. He was truly privileged to have
had such excellent access to what was essentially a top secret
library. …Put more simply; he was a spy.
As the secretary to the Portuguese archbishop in Goa he succeeded
in collecting the secret navigational charts which the Portuguese
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The Linschoten map by Jan
Huyghen Van Linschoten (1563 - 1610)
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used for sailing to the East Indies and
once there, from port to port.
On his return from Goa, Linschoten collected these documents
along with his own descriptions into two works which smashed
the Portuguese monopoly on the East Indian trade.
His maps are expertly engraved;
the copper plates being done by Arnold Florent Van Langeren
(1580-1644). Embellish-ment includes ornate wrought iron
style Cartouche filled with text whilst the sea contains
a huge compass rose, galleons and a giant sea monster. |
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| Book
Review: 1421
the Year China Discovered the World
by
Stephen Roney |
This book is an “international bestseller that
is rewriting history.” So the cover says; it does
seem to be creating a stir. I found it displayed prominently
in a Hong Kong bookshop, after finding friends reading
it in Shenzhen, China.
Author Gavin Menzies claims that Chinese
fleets, in 1421, circumnavigated the globe, mapping
the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, the
Arctic Ocean, and the fringe of Antarctica. All this
70 years before Columbus, and 100 before Magellan. It
is an exciting theory.
What is Menzies’ evidence? There
are no records; but many Chinese records were destroyed.
A retired Royal Navy submarine captain, Menzies argues
largely from old charts. They show, he says, that someone
must have visited these various shorelines before the
voyages of record. And this, he reckons, can only have
been the Chinese. History does record a remarkable feat
of Chinese navigation at this time: a vast fleet that
reached the east coast of Africa.
At first glance, Menzies’ expertise
in navigation seems to |
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Cover and spine of the soft-cover book.
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| offer special insight. By stretching
and tucking it here and there, for example—something he
justifies by arguing the Chinese did not know longitude, and
to account for prevailing currents—Menzies makes a section
of a 15th century Korean map, the Kangnido, look like Africa.
Even so, Menzies is ultimately unreliable.Here, he excerpts
only a portion of the map, and he does not mention that it shows
China much larger than Africa, and omits India |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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1421 the Year China Discovered the World cont... |
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altogether. This is
uncontroversial: the Kangnido is commonly believed to show Africa.
Given such latitudinal lapses, Menzies’s tinkerings with
longitude seem arbitrary. And much less than the breakthrough
they might appear.
On the Pizzigano map
of 1424, again, by their “position… alignment and
size,” Menzies iden-tifies Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico
— three-score years and ten before Columbus. But their
relative position on the map is actually opposite to that of
Puerto Rico and Guadaloupe; they are several thousand kilometers
too close to Europe; and they align north-south while Puerto
Rico runs east-west. Menzies does not mention this. On the 1513
Piri Reis map, Menzies spots an illustration of a “dog-headed
man.” This, he asserts, is a Patagonian mylodon, and so
proves that someone other than Patagonians must have been to
Patagonia, only twenty-one years after Columbus.
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The Kangnido map - full view.
The smallish appendage to the left
is supposed to be Africa; but note the relative size
of China.
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He fails to mention
that science holds the mylodon, a giant ground sloth, had been
extinct for ten thousand years. He also fails to point out that
the map describes a beast of seven spans. Four feet, at a stretch.
A mylodon rampant was ten feet tall. This suggests the quality
of Menzies’ research: he tends to suppress contrary evidence,
and leap to unwarranted conclusions. By the end of the book,
one suspects the Nazca Lines, Stonehenge, and certain unexplained
shadows on Mars, to have been Chinese. Concerns with Menzies’s
methods aside, there is actually quite a bit of evidence that
foreigners visited Australia, the Americas, and other parts
before their “official” discoveries. More controversial
is Menzies’s assertion that it was all done by the Chinese.
L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, after
all, features a Viking settlement a thousand years old. This
is not arcane stuff: it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The
Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa far earlier. There was no
need for European mapmakers to go to China—farther afield
than America itself—for such knowledge.
Yet for Menzies, even stone pillars in Africa and New Zealand
inscribed in Malayalam and Tamil are proof the Chinese were
there. Never mind South India’s own ancient seafaring
traditions. His basic argument is this: for such “immense”
distances, “a huge fleet must have been required.”
Considering “every navy in the world,” Menzies deduces
that “there was only one nation at that time with the
material resources.” This is a non sequitor: a longer
distance does not require a larger fleet. Rather the reverse.
Would it have been easier to put a thousand men on the moon,
than one? It also supposes that such discoveries must be made
at once, rather than incrementally over the centuries.
I suspect here the prejudices of a
lifelong bureaucrat: all must be done by government, to a schedule,
by official plan. Europe, Asia, Arabia and India teemed with
sea traders and fishermen. Could none ever have sought new trade
outlets, new products, new places to fish? Could none ever have
been blown off course even? Probably only at the Renaissance,
and in Europe, would it have occurred to anyone to announce
such discoveries. Shrewder to keep trade secrets to yourself,
and exploit them privately. Columbus, a dreamer, was probably
merely the first man foolish enough to give away the information
free. Menzies at least has not made that mistake. His website,
at http://www.1421.tv/, is funded by advertising. The book,
in paperback, costs 9 pounds ($25.00 Canadian). |
| I think the environment
should be put in the category of our national security. Defense
of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise
what is there to defend? ~Robert Redford, Yosemite National
Park dedication, 1985
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I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing
the sun's energy.... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would
have had solar energy centuries ago. ~Sir George Porter,
quoted in The Observer, 26 August 1973
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
|
Monthly Presentation #1:
Al Ain - Between a Rock and a Rough Place -
by Geoff Sanderson |
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This year, Geoff Sanderson started off the presentation roster
with, "Al Ain - Between a Rock and a Rough Place."
The rock is obviously Jebel Hafit, but the reference to a
"Rough Place" had the one hundred attendees guessing
- until he spoke of the Empty Quarter!
As someone intimately involved with the
last fifteen year city plan for Al Ain, and as someone even
more intimately involved with the next one, he has a view
of Al Ain that few people do. Always informative and entertaining,
Geoff managed to present both historical information and logistical
rationale for why things are as they are, and then he followed
up with some indications of future development trends. The
current focus on environmentally based planning gives one
hope that the water shortage prob-lems can actually be overcome,
that roads, cars and pedestrians can co-exist peacefully,
and that Al Ain will not spread out and engulf the entire
desert within the next twenty years. On behalf of the 100
people gathered for the presentation in the ballroom of the
Intercon hotel, "Thank you, Geoff, for a very informative
evening ."
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Al Ain - The Garden City of the UAE.
photo
by G. Sanderson
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Words
like tolerance, understanding, and learning all come to
mind along
with..... 'enjoy this wonderful city, follow
the changes, take an interest, don't
expect it all to
be the way you like it and appreciate the effort's the
leaders
of this city are making to retain its heritage,
restore compromised environ-
ment as well as evolving character to make it more and
more liveable'.
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| Recycling
Project Gets Underway |
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| “Thanks,”
to the Professional Investment Consultants Middle East Limited
(PIC) for funding, and “Thank you,” to the Emirates
Environmental Group (EEG) for expanding their project to Al
Ain, and “Thank you very much,” to the Al Ain English
Speaking School (AAESS) for providing space and encouragement.
Why, you ask?
The ENHG has been able to organize a "paper and can"
recycling project in Al Ain, because PIC have provided the
funding for a large recycling bin, and because the AAESS have
agreed to have the bin placed on the AAESS grounds, and because
the EEG will organize transport of the product back to the
recycling plant, when the bin is full. Hopefully, the students
will assist in spreading the word and in actually bringing
the recycling into reality.
Starbuck's in Al Ain Mall are already on-board recycling
their 4-5 copies of used newspapers daily. This amounts to
a stack more than one meter high each month. Want to get involved?
More on this in the future.
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| Dig a trench through a landfill
and you will see layers of phone books like geographical strata
or layers of cake.... During a recent landfill dig in Phoenix,
I found newspapers dating from 1952 that looked so fresh you
might read one over breakfast. ~William Rathje, The Economist,
8 September 1990 |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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Jebel
Qatar - (translation - the
weeping mountain)
After a couple of pre-season
Friday morning outings to the Jebeeb area and as moonlit
walk in the Musah region, the group headed for Jebel
Qatar, just a short drive down the road towards Mahdah
in Oman. Eleven of us set out, but were soon joined
by an intrepid group who caught a ride in with the Omani
Police, ever helpful and resourceful. We hiked up onto
the first levelling off and wandered about loking at
the old settlement sites. Young caterpillars crept about
everywhere - a sign that it had rained some few days
before (as if the huge donut ruts dug into the flat
ground leading in to the mountain by 4 x 4 junkies weren't
enough sign that there had been rain) - The heat was
getting prety intense as the morning wore on, so we
headed in to the shade of the gardens, and sat and enjoyed
a light lunch. Brigitte investigated some small pools
of residual water shaded by some of the larger boulders
and discovered zillions of tiny shrimp-like creatures.
Thanks to Zip-loc for making such great liquid containers
she was able to bring some home for further study. She
writes,
"Dick Hornby discovered these on Jebel Hafit
and there is a write-up about them in Tribulus 9.1.
Our shrimps are exactly the same, though the colour
photograph in Tribulus shows the animal as having a
blue hue... ours are quite bright, orange in fact. The
rest is the same. Question is, in 1999 Hornby's record
was a new addi-tion to fauna of the UAE, whether these
clam shrimps have already been recorded in Oman I'm
not certain." |
Clam shrimp - a first
in Oman?
photo by Dr. B. Howarth
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Jebeeb
-
by
Brien Holmes
The long wide valley that crosses
the Al Ain – Dubai high-way midway between Al
Hayer and Al Faqa’a extends from Wadi Sumayni
in the east to an area just south of Sweihan. Standing
in the valley, facing east, are the imposing gray mountains,
prominent among them Jebel Qatarra, a familiar site
to motorists returning from Dubai.
In recent years, with the relocation
of camel farms from the Buraimi district of Oman in
the months before the border fence was installed, the
valley, known as Jabeeb, has become an important center
for the breeding, rearing and training of racing camels.
The original five kilometer straight track is gone,
replaced with a modern oval track, complete with paved
road-ways on either side of the red rails.
At almost any time of the day, a
visitor to the valley, will see hundreds of camels being
paraded from the farms out to the racetrack, and beyond,
most sporting colorful blankets and many carrying young
jockeys.
Many years ago, Dr. Walid of
the Al Ain National Museum located an underground fallaj
system in the valley well drilling, road building, and
the installation of a water pipeline and reservoir have
so changed the landscape that the fallaj system can
no longer be found. A few years ago, archaeologists
confirmed the location of a large Iron Age settlement
area about eight kilometers west of the Al Ain –
Dubai highway in the valley. Over the years, it has
been a popular place for weekend visitors who have often
reported finding a variety of beads, bullets, pottery
and jewelry. |
 An
ancient well exposed in the bank of the Jabeeb clay pit
photo by Dr. Brigitte Howarth
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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Weekly Outings cont..
Jabeeb...
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During
the summer of 2004, members of the Al Ain chapter of the
ENHG made several weekend trips to Jabeeb, locating at
least two sites that yielded a large quantity of items,
most about 200 to 300 years old. In September, the group
shared the locations with officials from the Al Ain National
Museum, in the hope that some of the Jabeeb valley may
be protected from further encroachment by development.
The most interesting site was an area just beyond the
farms, about eight kilometers west of the Al Ain –
Dubai highway. Among the dunes, members found dozens of
fragments of bracelets, most made of glass but other fragments
of bracelets made of stone and ceramic. Officials at the
Museum are identifying and dating the fragments which
included at least three pieces of a three-colored bracelet
and several pieces of twisted glass bracelets. In an area
that must have been reserved for women, the members also
located several glass kohl applicators, silver jewellery
and perfume bottles. The pottery in the area varied from
Islamic pottery of indeter-minate age, many Iron Age shards
and many fragments from the recent past. The area was
also littered with fragments of saltwater seashells.
Nearby, approximately 200 meters from
the “women’s majlis”, was an area where
a hunting camp had been located. Around the area were
dozens of old rifle cartridges and the lead shot typical
of the bullets used up until the relatively recent past
(early to mid 20th century). It was obvious from some
of the items collected that the bullets were reused several
times. Some of the brass cartridges also appear to have
been reused. One of the most unusual finds was a pot that
had been glued together and reused. Also found were two
fragments of a bracelet that had also been glued together.
The use of glue was unusual; normally broken pots that
could be repaired were repaired by having holes drilled
and copper wire used to secure the pieces. Many specimen
of geckos and lizards were present and fresh gazelle tracks
were photographed on each trip. Plant life among the three-meter
dunes was limited. |
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In September, members of the Al Ain chapter returned to
Jabeeb to document what appears to be a well that has
been exposed in a quarry in Jabeeb. The quarry was used
to collect material for the road building and other construction
projects. The well appears to have been dissected vertically
with approximately three meters of the shaft visible.
A visitor can clearly see the horizontal lines left as
the well filled up with fresh sand after seasonal rains.
Around the top of the well were, as expected, many fragments
of pottery, most Iron Age. In the same quarry, the members
observed, along the walls of the pit, at least four manmade
channels cut vertically into the hard subsurface material
of the desert. The channels appear to be some sort of
construction for water; we are hopeful the channels are
not the remains of Dr. Walid’s fallaj system.
One of the other archaeological highlights
of the visits to Jabeeb was the identification of at least
four smelters where it appears copper was processed. The
supposition is that copper ingots, from the small smelters
located in communities in the Hajar Mountains, was brought
to Jabeeb where it was used to make utensils and arrowheads.
Several bronze arrowheads have been found at Jabeeb, including
one Iron Age arrowhead found by the Al Ain members last
spring.
The Al Ain chapter hopes
to continue to explore the Jabeeb area and locate additional
sites to support the move to have at least some of the
area set aside and protected. Officials from the Museum
have made at least one return visit to the area and ENHG
members will tour the sites with Dr. Walid when he returns
at the end of September. The Museum has selected some
of the material collected to add to the Museum’s
inventory of items. However, most of the items will be
returned to the ENHG for the group’s collection
at the workroom. Museum staff will clean and document
the numerous coins found, as well as the bracelets and
other jewelry. It is hoped that a formal report documenting
the Jabeeb finds will be drafted later this year and offered
to various journals for publication to a wider scientific
audience. |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September, 2004– Issue #220
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Jazeera oasis - an island
of green amongst the mountains. photo
by G. Buzzell
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Looking out of the oasis at
the surroundings - ROCK!
photo by G. Buzzell |
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is an old mango tree in the oasis that must be more than
200 years old. We sat beneath it and picnicked. After
many photographs of the banana trees in fruit and the
orange trees, guava, henna and papaya, we all crossed
over the small footbridge back out to the road and while
some walked back to get the cars, others wandered off
down the road in search of the elusive wadi pools. What
a treat that was. The water was actually cold to get into
and clean and fresh. Even the fish in there were fresh
butting into your legs, feet and any exposed flesh they
could find, "cleaning" us for free. It startled
many of us at first, and led to a lot of gazing down-ward
to see what was happening. I don't know yet what species
of fish they are, perhaps someone out there who knows
would send me an email? So - after sitting round the pool's
edge drying off we sadly had to return to the city to
continue our lives here. Many will carry fond memories
of this trip for a long time. |
| Right:
The pools downstream are FANTASTIC!
photo
byGeoff Sanderson |
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Al
Jazeera - (translation
- the island)
After a couple of pre-season
Friday morning outings to the Jebeeb area and as moonlit
walk in the Musah region, the group headed for Al Jazeera
oasis in the Omani mountains. About 30 members gathered
in the parking lot outside the Buraimi Hotel. We piled
into 8 4x4's and drove over both paved and gravel roads
to Jazeera, an island oasis in the mountains of Oman.
The weir was almost full, a good sign at the end of
summer. A lot of work has been done over the last year
and the oasis is looking good. We wandered through the
coolness of the oasis and explored the old village.
Brien found an old date storage "jar" about
two feet by one foot and photographed it. The fluted
top was not lidded. down in the oasis, scorpions were
plentiful and a couple of specimens were captured to
be brought back for study. Mike Gillet captured a couple
of bombardier beetles and explained their explosive
defense mechanism to all gathered under the tree. An
astonished group considered the effectiveness of 30%
hydrogen peroxide sprayed in your eyes mixed with other
substances that quicken the spread rate and add to the
pain, not to mention the flash of light that accompanies
the act. It must be a real wake-up call for whatever
is attacking the beetle. |
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| The ENHG
Newsletter…
September,
2003 – Issue #220 |
2nd
Monthly Presentation: -
The juniper woodlands of Jebel Akhdar
article & photos by Drew
Gardiner |
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The Jebel Akhdar is the highest part of the
Hajar moun-tains, reaching just over 3000m at Jebel Shams.
The moun-tains are formed from hard limestone and dolomite
in a massive box -shaped anticline. Erosion has cut into
the formation and removed much of its roof, so that on
the southern side of the mountains, the gradient is fairly
uni-form following the tilted slabs along the strata.
On the northern side the mountains fall precipitously
into the hol-lowed out interior of the anticline. These
north-facing cliffs are well-shaded and cooler than equivalent
altitudes on the exposed south-facing slopes.
The climate is semi-arid with
an average rainfall of about 350 mm. Frosts are common
in winter and there are occa-sional snow falls on the
summit. Cloud and fog are not un-common. There are two
peaks to the rainfall: late winter and summer, though
there is huge variability in annual rain-fall. The vegetation
and fauna has links with that of the Zag-ros mountains
on the northern side of the Gulf, and there is strong
altitudinal zonation from the Acacia scrub at the bottom,
through olive / but woodland, to juniper at the tops.
Species on the tops tend to be relicts from cooler climatic
phases, including Dionysia, Lonicera, Ebenus and Daphne.
Woodlands of juniper are a characteristic
feature of the arid and semiarid mountains of East Africa,
the Middle East and Central Asia. In northern Oman, the
species is Junip-erus excelsa subspp polycarpos. This
form has a distri-bution from the mountains of eastern
Turkey, through the Caucasus, to the dry Himalayan mountains
The Oman population is the most southerly by about 4 degrees
of latitude. Juniper trees are usually multi-stemmed trees
up to about 20 m tall (though |
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A
lightning struck juniper at Hayl Jawari |
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most are 5 – 8 m). The trunks may coalesce into a single
bole up to 3 m in diameter. Juniper trees are either male, female,
or occasionally (5%) ambisexual (both male cones and berries).
Woodlands of juniper are a characteristic
feature of the arid and semiarid mountains of East Africa, the
Middle East and Central Asia. In northern Oman, the species
is Juniperus excelsa subspp polycarpos. This form has a distribution
from the mountains of eastern Turkey, through the Caucasus,
to the dry Himalayan mountains The Oman population is the most
southerly by about 4 degrees of latitude. Juniper trees are
usually multi-stemmed trees up to about 20 m tall (though most
are 5 – 8 m). The trunks may coalesce into a single bole
up to 3 m in diameter. Juniper trees are either male, female,
or occasionally (5%) ambisexual (both male cones and berries).
There is regeneration in some places.
Tree shape is rather variable, from classical ‘Christmas
trees’ when young, to large uprights, to flattened growth
forms on exposed ridges, and gnarled old trees on cliffs. In
some areas they are the dominant vegetation. Lightning strike
is a significant factor in mortality.
While walking in the mountains, my
friend Martin Fisher and I noted areas of dead and dying trees,
and set up a research project to investigate the causes. We
surveyed the complete range of the juniper trees, mainly on
foot and by helicopter (thanks to the Royal Flight), and analysis
of the results showed that the altitude and shading were the
main determinants of tree health. In particular trees at the
lower end of the elevation range on exposed slopes, between
2000 and 2400 m were in very poor shape. Many of these trees
were dead or almost dead and few were still fruiting. In shaded
areas and at higher altitudes the woodlands were in much better
condition, with adequate regeneration. A detailed survey of
a woodland at Hayl Juwari in the western Jebel Akhdar (designated
as a site of special botanical interest) reinforced this observation.
The trees growing within the damper wadis are taller, healthier,
fruiting more, also suggesting that the poor state of lower
woodlands may be due to the conditions becoming warmer or drier.
Juniper trees produce annual growth
rings. These show that the trees grow very slowly, and large
trees may be many centuries old. The rings also have a climate
signal in that they are variable in width. A preliminary study
shows that it is feasible, though difficult, to use the rings
as a proxy for past climate (especially spring rainfall).
In general the juniper woodlands are still little impacted by
man, though with the increase numbers of roads, houses and tourist
developments in the mountains, it is to be hoped that the area
is given formal conservation protection so that this unique
habitat is preserved. |
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