A05_08

Reservoir effect of shells from Tell Abraq, Sharjah Emirate, UAE

Lindauer S ¹,  Händel M², Magee P³

¹Curt-Engelhorn-Centre Archaeometry, Mannheim, Germany, ²Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, ³Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

We present reservoir effects on shells of species Terebralia palustris and Marcia sp. that have been recovered in the course of archaeological excavations at the multi-period site of Tell Abraq, Sharjah Emirate, UAE. The site was inhabited from the early Bronze Age, throughout the Iron Age, and into the pre-Islamic period. Situated in a lagoonal environment with former mangrove forests at the Arabian Gulf coast, Tell Abraq provides a well-defined and stratigraphically controlled archaeological context for investigations on the reservoir effect of the two species chosen. The data will be discussed in a wider context with respect to results obtained at other sites. This allows for a differentiation between environmental effects on a local scale in comparison to more global effects. Shells are not only indicators of palaeoenvironmental conditions but also represent an important tool to reconstruct the precise chronologies of both ocean circulation and human occupation on the Arabian Gulf coast of southeast Arabia in the mid to late Holocene.