Masāfī

Oasis located in the northern Hajar chain, on the border between the emirates of Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah (United Arab Emirates). Three wādīs originate from this area (Sījī, ʿAbādila and Ḥām), famous for its water springs. Remains of Late Bronze Age (1600–1200 BCE: Masāfī-5) and Iron Age (1200–600 BCE: Masāfī-2, Masāfī-1, Masāfī-3) sites have been recorded and excavated in this area by the French Archaeological Mission in the U.A.E. between 2007 and 2020. Geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental investigations carried out in the oasis have led to the reconstruction of environmental conditions and farming practices, from the Late Bronze Age to the present day.

The southern part of Masāfī (Fujairah side) was surveyed in 2007 by the French Archaeological Mission in the U.A.E. (dir. Anne Benoist). This survey led to the discovery and the subsequent investigation of an Iron Age occupation, comprising several sites (Fig. 1). Masāfī-1 was a meeting place where three collective buildings, including a columned hall, were successively built at the same place (Fig. 2: MSF-1). These yielded specific clay objects and vessels (bridge spouted jugs, carinated bowls, braziers decorated with snakes: Benoist et al. 2012a, 2012b, 2015) and two jars containing a substantial quantity of copper and copper alloy ingots (Fig. 3) (Goy et al. 2018; Benoist et al. in press). At a short distance to the southwest, the remains of a small votive building opening towards the west were excavated at Masāfī-3 (Fig. 2: MSF-3), where dozens of ex-votos in copper or in ceramic were deposited, many depicting or shaped like snakes (Fig. 4) (Benoist et al. 2012a, 2012b). To the northwest of the Masāfī area, a fortified village – Masāfī-2 – was located on the eastern slope of a rocky hill (Fig. 5: MSF-2). It consisted of a dense pattern of stone-built houses, built on stepped terraces and accessible through narrow pathways (Benoist 2013).

Between 2011 and 2020, a Late Bronze Age settlement was discovered and partly excavated, on top of a rocky hill located to the south of the present-day oasis (Masāfī-5) (dir. Anne Benoist and Julien Charbonnier). This settlement was characterized by postholes and fireplaces on terraces supported by stone walls and distributed from top to bottom of the hill (Pellegrino et al. 2023: 159–167) (Fig. 6). This settlement yielded a pottery assemblage of a type not encountered before, but also included a small proportion of vessels imported from other places in the U.A.E., which, combined with a series of ¹⁴C dating, identified it as a local Late Bronze Age production, contemporaneous with assemblages from Shimal, Tell Abraq and Kalba (Benoist 2013, Degli Esposti & Benoist 2015; Pellegrino et al. 2020). Subsistence was mainly assured by irrigated agriculture and sheep, goat and cattle herding (Decruyenaere et al. 2022; Pellegrino et al. 2023: 167–171). This self-sufficient economy was complemented by the processing of seashells, for manufacturing tools, and probably copper, as revealed by the presence of slags and a possible furnace. This, in combination with the presence of imported potteries, shows that Masāfī-5 was also well integrated into regional trade networks at that time.

In the centre of this Iron Age territory, geoarchaeological test pits in the palm grove of Masāfī (dir. Louise Purdue and Julien Charbonnier) revealed continuous cultivation from the Late Bronze Age to the present day (Fig. 7). The oasis benefited from a specific hydro-geological setting characterized by the accumulation of groundwater (Charbonnier et al. 2020: 483–485). During the Iron Age, water management combined the use of wells and surface water harvesting, and was thus very distinct from the falaj system encountered in the western foothills of Southeast Arabia (al-Madām, Hīlī) during the same period (Charbonnier et al. 2017, 2020). The long-term evolution of agricultural terraces and practices has also been reconstituted (Purdue et al. 2019).

Anne Benoist & Julien Charbonnier

References and suggested reading

• Benoist, A. 2013. A green paradise. Economic strategies, collective practices, and local ancestors of the Iron Age community of Masāfī (Emirate of Fujairah, UAE). PSAS 43: 47–62. www.jstor.org/stable/43782867
• Benoist, A., V. Bernard, O. Brunet & A. Hamel 2012a. The Iron Age occupation in Masafi: Report on two seasons of excavation, in D.T. Potts & P. Hellyer (eds) Fifty years of Emirates Archaeology: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: 149–159. Abu Dhabi: Motivate Publishing.
• Benoist, A., V. Bernard, J. Charbonnier, J. Goy, A. Hamel & T. Sagory 2012b. Occupation of the Iron Age in Masafi: Recent work by the French Archaeological Mission in the Emirate of Fujairah in the UAE. Chroniques Yéménites: 1–22. DOI: 10.4000/cy.1803.
• Benoist, A., C. Le Carlier de Veslud, J. Goy, M. Degli Esposti, B. Armbruster & G. Attaelmanan 2015. Snake, copper and water in south-eastern Arabian religion during the Iron Age: the Bithnah and Masāfī evidence, in M. Arbach & J. Schiettecatte (eds) Pre-Islamic South Arabia and its Neighbours: New Developments of Research. Proceedings of the 17th Rencontres Sabéennes held in Paris, 6–8 June 2013: 21–36 (BAR International Series, 2740). Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Benoist, A., A. Hamel, C. Le Carlier, M. Degli-Esposti & J. Goy In press. Iron Age Metalworking at Masafi-1. A reconsideration of the metal hoards discovered in the collective buildings. Etudes et Travaux / Travaux du centre d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences 37.
• Charbonnier, J., L. Purdue & A. Benoist 2017. Taming Surface Water in Pre-Islamic Southeast Arabia: Archaeological, Geoarchaeological, and Chronological Evidence of Runoff Water Channeling in Masāfī (UAE). JFA 42: 13–28. DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2016.1256172.
• Charbonnier, J., M. Crépy, E. Régagnon, C. Calastrenc, T. Sagory, A. Benoist & L. Purdue. 2020. Exploitation of groundwater in the oasis of Masāfī (UAE): A diachronic perspective AAE 31: 478–500. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12168.
• Decruyenaere, D., M. Mashkour, K. Lidour, K. Debue, T. Sagory, M.P. Pellegrino, J. Charbonnier & A. Benoist 2022. Late Bronze and Iron Age animal exploitation in Masāfī, Fujairah, UAE. PSAS 51: 123–140.
• Degli Esposti, M. & A. Benoist 2015. More on Masafi ancestors: the Late Bronze Age site of Masafi-5. PSAS 45: 57–74. www.jstor.org/stable/43783622
• Goy, J., M. Degli Esposti, C. Le Carlier de Veslud & A. Benoist 2018. Archaeometallurgical research on Iron Age (1250–300 BCE) copper production in the northern Hajjar Mountains (Oman Peninsula), in E. Ben-Yosef (ed.) Mining for Ancient Copper. Essays in Memory of Beno Rothenberg (Monograph Series of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology 37): 371–389. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University.
• Pellegrino, M.P., J. Charbonnier, A. Benoist, D. Decruyenaere, K. Lidour, M. Degli Esposti & A. Hamel 2023. Insights on the Late Bronze Age economy in south-eastern Arabia: Self-sufficiency and exchanges in Masafi-5, in Advances in UAE Archaeology: Proceedings of Abu Dhabi’s Archaeology Conference 2022: 157–181. Abu Dhabi, Oxford: Zayed National Museum – Department of Culture and Tourism, Archaeopress.
• Pellegrino, M.P., S. Méry, A. Benoist, S. Costa & J. Charbonnier 2020. Ceramic exchange in the northern UAE during the Late Bronze Age: preliminary results of macroscopic and petrographic analyses. PSAS 50: 259–273. www.jstor.org/stable/27205769
• Purdue, L., J. Charbonnier, E. Régagnon, C. Calastrenc, T. Sagory, C. Virmoux, M. Crépy, S. Costa & A. Benoist 2019. Geoarchaeology of Holocene oasis formation, hydro-agricultural management and climate change in Masafi, southeast Arabia (UAE). Quaternary Research 92: 109–132. DOI: 10.1017/qua.2018.142.