Southern Red Sea Project: Farasan Islands

Project Member(s):

• Geoff Bailey
• Nic Flemming
• Abdullah Al-Sharekh
(King Saud University, Saudi Arabia)
• Gary Momber
• Anthony Sinclair (University of Liverpool)
• Claudio Vita-Finzi (Natural History Museum, London)
• Matthew Collins
• Lawrence Moran
• Abdarrazzack Al Ma'amary (Sana'a University, Republic of Yemen)

Funding Bodies

• The British Academy

Sponsors

• The Deputy Ministry of Antiquities and Museums, Saudi Arabia
• The Supreme Commission for Tourism, Saudi Arabia
• The Ministry of Defence and Aviation, Saudi Arabia

Description

This project follows on directly from Africa-Arabian Connections and is designed to investigate in more detail the extremely abundant record of postglacial shell mounds on the Islands and to carry out more extensive mapping of the underwater topography by remote sensing as the prelude to renewed diving and more detailed underwater investigations.

Objectives

1. To refine our understanding of the character and variability of the on-shore archaeological record on the Farasan Islands

2. To establish the chronological, geoarchaeological, palaeoeconomic and palaeoenvironmental characteristics of the shell mound sequencs

3. To complete the survey of the coastal shell mounds, and to undertake test excavations of selected mounds and collection of samples

4. To search for earlier traces of archaeology associated with the Last Interglacial shoreline

5. To map more widely the offshore topography in the light of the 2006 diving survey To reconstruct the position of relict terrestrial features such as submerged palaeoshorelines, and to identify potential areas of archaeological preservation.

Methods

We will use aerial survey for preliminary reconnaissance, followed by survey on land by vehicle (4wd), small boat and on foot, using GPS and satellite imagery for navigation and precise mapping of coordinates. We will carry out excavations on selected shell mounds on land, with removal of bulk midden samples for laboratory analysis, and sampling of material from additional sites and associated sediments in order to further develop a chronological framework, including the York expertise in Amino Acid Racemization for dating of shell and coral. For the underwater survey we will use multi-beam swath bathymetry, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiling and photography, building on our knowledge of underwater features identified in our preliminary diving survey, to produce a three-dimensional record of bathymetry, topography, and sediment type and thickness, including localised high-resolution scans to explore anomalous features that may represent archaeological features. This will form the basis for renewed work at a future date beyond this particular phase of work including diving and coring to collect more detailed information on submerged palaeoenvironments and any associated archaeology.