The World's First
Geocache
Site of Iron Age graves (piles of rocks with
treasure underneath - sound familiar :) ). An interesting
geological outcrop = but unfortunately there is a fence around
the site and access is limited. The geocache is outside the fenced
area and I am not sure when the site is open to visitors. Check
with the Al Ain museum.
Overview of
site
Bida Bint Saud lies some 15
kilometres north of Al Ain. The site is dominated by an outcrop of
stratified rock, the Qarn Bint Saud, rising 40 metres above the
surrounding landscape. Since 1970, numerous tombs have been found
on the top of this outcrop and in the surrounding foothills.
Although smaller, in many ways the Qarn resembles Jebel Hafit and
is visible from a considerable distance. At the base of the Qarn
are tombs dating from 3000 BC, similar to those at Hafit: single,
circular chambers, accessed by a narrow entrance through a
surrounding ring wall. Originally, the walls gradually inclined to
form a dome-shaped roof.
On the top of the outcrop there
is a group of graves from the Iron Age (roughly 1300 to 300 BC).
These are also circular in shape, but larger and divided into a
number of chambers designed for collective burials. Many centuries
ago the graves were plundered by tomb robbers and consequently any
skeletal finds have been disturbed and are in poor condition.
However, archaeological teams have found pottery and stone vessels,
dagger blades, bronze arrowheads and different types of
beads.
Towards the end of the Bronze
Age, technological advances resulted in the development of
double-edged swords up to 40cm in length. Excavations at one of the
collective tombs on top of the outcrop brought to light some swords
of this type. The Iron Age people manufactured and traded
soft-stone vessels and finds have included decorated bowls, beakers
and compartmented boxes.
A few hundred metres west of the
outcrop are the remains of a large mud brick building that may well
have been the chief’s majlis, or meeting place, since it
includes a large courtyard and the plinths of 12 pillars which
originally supported a roof. There are store rooms on the outer
side of this building which were found to contain numerous storage
jars, suggesting that distribution of water could also have been
administered from here.
A little to the south of the
building, excavations exposed a falaj, or underground water
channel, composed of a number of stone-lined shafts connected by a
horizontal tunnel, running far back into the hillside. Steps lead
down to the sharia, the mouths of two separate tunnels that
provided access for the collection of water in portable containers.
A large open cistern fed by water through the sharia, and a second
falaj have also been discovered.
For many years it was thought
that the falaj system originated in Persia, but this discovery, and
similar finds at Hili, establish its origins in south east Arabia
around three thousand years ago. It is a highly sophisticated
method of bringing water long distances from plentiful sources in
mountain ranges to provide irrigation for crops and drinking water
for the community. (Acknowledgements - ADACH
website)
Ercynpr gb rafher ab bar frrf gur pnpur sebz NAL natyr.