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Sharjah: Copper artefacts more than 4,000 years old were discovered at a new site in Sharjah, the department of culture and information announced yesterday.
A large semi-spherical copper ingot weighing almost five kilograms was unearthed at a new site in Wadi Helou in the Eastern Region during a joint archaeological excavation project.
Direct proof
The project, being undertaken by the Directorate of Antiquities and the Institute of Pre- and Proto-history and Medieval Archaeology of the University of Tubingen, Germany, made the discoveries during the months of February and March this year.
Headed by Dr Sabbah Jasem and Professor Hans-Peter Uerpmann, the team said during an excavation last year they found indications of early industrial exploitation of copper ore in the Wadi Helou area.
The site was mapped and test excavations were made in February and March this year. The ingot serves as direct proof of production of copper from local ore.
According to the investigating team, copper was produced at this site during two periods, one in the early Bronze Age more than 4,000 years ago, and the other during the Islamic period.
The early phase is of particular interest because it is the first site in the UAE under scientific exploration with regard to the production of copper during the early Bronze Age.
There are now numerous finds of stone tools from a period which may go back to thousands of years. International specialists from the US and Ukraine were invited to study these finds.
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