The natural environment of Jebel al-Buhais : past and present / edited by Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Margarethe Uerpmann and Sabah Abboud Jasim.

Includes bibliographical references.

The second volume in the series, The Archaeology of al-Buhais, examines the prehistoric environment of the area. From climate and landscape, water and mineral resources to vegetation and animals, the different aspects of human palaeoecology are documented and discussed by an international group of researchers. They each joined the excavations for at least one season and made themselves familiar with the local conditions and the present site ecology. This volume is an example of the often propagated close co-operation between archaeology and the natural sciences. Several chapters, based on various kinds of evidence, conclude that the 5th millennium BC was slightly moister than it is today in the area of al-Buhais. This is one of the many details which prove important in determining the circumstances surrounding the daily life of the Neolithic population. The reconstruction of environmental conditions helps advance our understanding of these early inhabitants of the area, which is now the Central Region of the Emirate of Sharjah. It is inter-esting to see that the animal world at that time still comprised the wild ancestors of some species that are now only known as domesticates: the wild dromedary, wild ass, mountain goat, and the aurochs, which is the progenitor of cattle. They have since lost their habitats through desiccation, but even more so through changes to the landscape brought on by humans. The results of the work on the environmental history at the site of al-Buhais also prove significant when examining a much wider region. Most of the sites from this period in SE-Arabia do not provide any environmental evidence. Thus, al-Buhais has already become a point of reference not only for its funeral monuments and human remains, described in the first volume of this series, but also in terms of environmental archaeology.