James Roberts

Excavations at Saruq al-Hadid, a late prehistoric (c.2000 BCE – c.800 BCE) site located in the Emirate of Dubai, U.A.E., have recovered several tonnes of animal bone. Due to a thorough sieving and retention strategy the remains of a range of taxa were collected, from camels to rodents. Within this wealth of material several dozen fragments of a var...

Marine resources were an integral and consistent component of subsistence strategies employed in south‐eastern Arabia throughout late prehistory. Of particular interest is the movement of these resources from the coast to interior sites and the implications of this movement for transhumance and trade in the region during this period. Marine species...

Fishing is known to have been an integral component of life in prehistoric coastal communities in southeastern Arabia and the recovery of fish bones from sites away from the coast indicates that fish were also an important resource at inland sites in this area. Recent excavations undertaken at the late prehistoric (c.2000–c.800 BCE) site of Saruq a...

The archaeological site of Saruq al-Hadid, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, presents a long sequence of persistent temporary human occupation on the northern edge of the Rub’ al-Khali desert. The site is located in active dune fields, and evidence for human activity is stratified within a deep sequence of natural dune deposits that reflect complex taph...

Domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus L., 1758) were integrated into agricultural systems in the Horn of Africa as early as the pre‐Aksumite period (c. 2,500 years ago), after they were introduced from Asia through land and maritime trade and exchange. In this paper, we explore the development of chicken landraces in this region by examining...

The Wadi Suq period (ca.2000-1600 BCE) in southeast Arabia has traditionally been considered something of a “dark age”. More recent understandings suggest that people of the Wadi Suq may have developed lifeways that were strikingly different from the ones that had existed for the preceding thousand years without necessarily abandoning the places pr...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2018.1491324 • In this paper, the authors use the site of Saruq al-Hadid-a 'persistent temporary place' located in the mobile dune fields of the north eastern edge of the Rub' al-Khali desert-as a lens to focus discussion on the variable nature of temporary sites and mobile adaptations within the archae...

We present zooarchaeological data from the camel remains recently excavated from Saruq al-Hadid, dating to the mid-Bronze to early Iron Age (2200-800BC). We show the insights into the relationship between humans and camels this data provides and explore the potential ramifications of these insights into our understanding of camel domestication. Thi...

The nature of the relationship between humans and wild terrestrial animals has been little discussed in Bronze Age and Iron Age south‐eastern Arabia, largely due to a relative paucity of their remains in contemporary faunal assemblages. In this paper we present the results of analysis of animal bone recently excavated from Saruq al‐Hadid, a late pr...

We present bird remains from Saruq al-Hadid, dating to 2200 - 800 BC. These remains demonstrate the consumption of seabird (Cormorant - Phalacrocorax sp.) at the site. In turn demonstrate the links between Saruq al-Hadid and the coast, along with other sites where cormorant was commonly consumed such as Tell Abraq. A fragment of raptor in the remai...

In the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the archaeological record of human occupation in Arabia’s desert interior in the Pleistocene and Holocene. This research has focussed particularly on periods of climatic amelioration that facilitated human utilisation of areas that are now hyper arid, for example the ‘Holocene Climatic Optim...

Zooarchaeological report from the 2009-2015 excavations at Woking Palace.

: In November 2014, UNE commenced a program of excavation and post-excavation analyses focused on the site of Saruq al-Hadid in Dubai, U.A.E., in collaboration with Dubai Municipality. This paper presents a summary and review of the results this research, focusing on new understandings of the stratigraphy and chronology of the site, the subsistence...

In September 2014, the University of New England (UNE), Australia, began a three-year programme of archaeological fieldwork and post-excavation analyses focused on the site of Saruq al-Hadid. In this paper, we present the initial results of our current field and laboratory research particularly related to site stratigraphy and formation processes,...

Saruq al-Hadid, in Dubai, UAE, is one of south-eastern Arabia’s most important and enigmatic archaeological sites. Since 2003, excavations at the site have revealed an assemblage of archaeological artefacts, mostly of Iron Age date, that is unprecedented in its scale and diversity. The thousands of bronze, iron, and gold artefacts from the site, ac...