21/10/2024
UNE Archaeology’s Professor Lloyd Weeks is preparing to lead an international team to the desert in the Middle East this November, in an attempt to better understand how people survived the challenging climate conditions of the Bronze Age.
Dating back to 2000-1000 years BCE, Shimal, a site in today’s UAE and Oman, is one of the few-known Middle and Late Bronze Age settlements in South East Arabia. Its most prominent archaeological record lies in hundreds of collective tombs.
But the UNE-led team will also be interested in uncovering everyday remains and artefacts that shed light on how the settlement adapted and survived at a time that probably felt like the known world was falling in.
“The Late Bronze Age – c. 1600-1200 BCE – is a fascinating time and place in the ancient world, because it’s where everything goes pear-shaped in Arabia and the Middle East,” Professor Weeks explains.
“It’s a time affected by a number of crises, including catastrophic climate events that changed human civilisation.”
As only the second UNE-led expedition to the site, following on from one in 2023, the aim will primarily be to note where important deposits of remains of particular materials and particular periods can be found.
“Eventually, we hope to be able to examine how people were able to live and thrive in the face of a worsening climate, and how they adapted their subsistence practices and cultural behaviours in order to be resilient,” says UNE zooarchaeology expert, Associate Professor Melanie Fillios.
“In that way, Shimal is a small corner of the Bronze Age story of human development, but also one with modern-day resonance.”
The team will spend the six-week expedition excavating the remains of settlements and associated rubbish deposits, as well as excavating burials from this time period to access skeletal material for a range of analyses.
The expedition is also a chance for UNE archaeology students to put their skills to practice with some exciting hands-on field-work. This season two UNE students will join the team, with research forming the foundation of two master’s projects.
The Shimal project has so far been funded by the Society of Antiquaries of London, through their Beatrice De Cardi Awards. It’s currently under review for an Australian Research Council grant.
📷Images from the first UNE-led expedition to Shimal, 2023.
