building at
Bidaa bint Saud and on display at the
Al Ain National Museum. It is thought to be an incense burner. The Iron Age II period saw the rapid growth in the number of settlements throughout southeastern Arabia, not only in coastal but also inland areas. It also was a time when a more structured society and communities emerged, with evidence of social ritual, administration and religious practices. date back to the Iron Age II period – pre-dating finds of
qanat waterways in
Iran. Early finds of
aflaj, particularly those around the desert city of
Al Ain, have been cited as the earliest evidence of the construction of these waterways. More and more complex systems of irrigation evolved and, in the Iron Age II era, we start to see the emergence of centralised authority imposed over the most precious resource known to man at the time. It is thought nearby Bidaa bint Saud became an important site during the Iron Age, both as a caravan stop and as a settled community of farmers that used the
falaj irrigation system there. Two of these irrigation passages have been partly excavated at Bidaa bint Saud, with a number of sections remaining in reasonable condition. In one of the excavations, a number of sandstone-lined shaft holes were discovered, as well as a stepped underground access point and a large open cistern. Evidence of formerly irrigated land has also been found at the site. Rumailah, today part of Al Ain, was a major Iron Age II settlement dated from around 1,100–500 BCE. Finds at Rumailah include distinctive pottery adorned with
snake patterns, similar to finds at
Qusais,
Masafi and the major Iron and Bronze Ages; metallurgical production centre at
Saruq Al Hadid, as well as
chlorite vessels decorated with turtles alternating with trees, similar to finds from
Qidfa' in Fujairah,
Qusais in Dubai and
Al-Hajar in
Bahrain. . Displayed at the
Louvre Abu Dhabi on loan from Al Ain Museum. A number of Iron Age swords and axe-heads, as well as distinctive seal moulds, were also recovered from the site. A number of bronze arrowheads were also found. The Iron Age buildings found at Rumailah are typical of those in the region, at Iron Age I and II sites such as Al Thuqeibah and
Muweilah, with a number of row dwellings, although lacking the perimeter walls found at Thuqeibah. A columned hall at Rumailah provides a further link to Muweilah, while a number of pyramidal seals found there echo with similar objects discovered at Bidaa bint Saud. Constructed in the main from interlocked mud bricks and mud/stone brick walls, the walled settlement itself surrounds a large walled enclosure with seven buildings, thought to have provided living quarters as well as an administrative centre. This central building contained at least twenty columns and has been a rich trove for archaeologists, with extensive finds of painted and spouted vessels, iron weapons and hundreds of bronze pieces. Enabled by the
domestication of the camel in the region, thought to have taken place around 1,000 BCE, Muweilah's trade included the manufacture of copper goods, with "extensive casting spillage from the manufacture of copper items found throughout the site". Hundreds of grinding stones indicate the consumption of both barley and wheat. Although now some 15 km inland today, it is thought that in its heyday, Muweilah would have been located on a
khor or creek. In its prime, around 850 BCE, Muweilah was a busy and productive major inland settlement. Artefacts recovered from Muweilah are contiguous to those found from the same period at Tell Abraq and other Iron Age settlements, evidence of an emerging uniform material across the settled areas of the time. He notes academics such as JC Wilkinson (1977) adopting an Iranian origin for the technology under the influence of Sargon's annals and Polybius, but points out at least seven Iron Age
aflaj recently discovered in the
Al Ain area of the UAE have been reliably carbon dated back to the beginning of the first millennium BCE. Additional to finds of Iron Age
aflaj in Al Ain, Tikriti pointed to excavations in
Al Madam,
Sharjah, by the French archaeological team working there, as well as by a German team working in Maysar, in
Oman. Tikriti is at pains to point out that, despite long-standing efforts since the 19th century to excavate qanat systems in Iran, no evidence has been found for any such qanat there dated earlier than the 5th century BCE. and that the carbon dating of
aflaj in Oman and the UAE to the ninth century BCE by Cleuziou and evidence for such an early date provided by Tikriti are definitive. Additionally, Boucharlat maintains that no known Iranian qanat can be dated to the pre-Islamic period. The Iron Age II innovation of the
falaj in southeastern Arabia accelerated the development of oasis agriculture. Wells had clearly been core community resources since the Umm Al Nar period, protected by fortified towers and earlier Hafit burials tended to be grouped around known oasis areas. As the management and husbandry of these water resources in community settings developed, so did settlement and an effectively sedentary population with communal water management. It is thought that the
bustan system of agriculture was developed at this time, where
aflaj irrigation supports palm groves, which give shade to less hardy crops. This multi-layered form of agriculture brought collectivism to communities and sustaining the
aflaj would have maintained the viability of the plantation. This also brought new ideas of community and the development of system of dispute resolution and the concept of rule of law would have developed in these pre-Islamic societies. == Domestication of camels ==