ABU DHABI: The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced an open day for members of the public to visit Al Ain’s Hili Archaeological Park on 20 February.
Located within the UNESCO World Heritage site of Al Ain, the 3,000-year-old settlement of the Hili 14 site is one of the largest sites of this kind in the UAE and the biggest within the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Visitors will be able to discover Hili 14’s Iron Age village through guided tours of the live excavation site, taking place every 30 minutes from 8:30 am until 12 pm. The tour includes meet-and-greet opportunities with DCT Abu Dhabi archaeologists as well as viewings of the remarkable array of artefacts that have been found at Hili 14, including storage jars, decorated cups and bowls, and thousands of pottery shards and bronze arrowheads that have been collected from the site.
The Hili 14 Iron Age civilisation brought about extraordinary advances that led to the creation of a distinctive chapter in the UAE’s history.
These include the domestication of the camel, which led to the expansion of trade routes, as well as the development of the falaj irrigation system, and ingenious underground tunnels that brought both water and prosperity to the land.
Since 2018, DCT Abu Dhabi has initiated new scientific investigations that have revealed remarkable findings, including that the site is a raised mound about 1.5m (metres) above the surrounding area, measuring approximately 58m by 58m. The fort is surrounded by a large wall, with numerous mudbrick structures of varying sizes identified within the fort. One noteworthy structure is a large building that was likely an early form of majlis, possibly serving a similar function to the modern-day gathering space.
Discoveries include an industrial area with at least two pottery kilns that were used to produce ceramics. The fortified wall and numerous arrowheads scattered throughout the site suggest Hili 14 may have even served as a refuge in times of conflict.
The ongoing excavations
of Hili 14 are part of DCT Abu Dhabi’s efforts to preserve and promote the emirate’s heritage sites.
Source: Emirates News Agency