Seeing through the dunes: Geophysical investigations at Muweilah, an Iron Age site in the United Arab Emirates

Geophysical techniques have been developed and used in the investigation of archaeological sites predominantly in temperate climates in northern Europ e and North America; relatively little geophysical work has been undertaken on sites in arid environments. This article presents a magnetometry survey of the Iron Age (ca. 1300-300 BC) site of Muweilah, United Arab Emirates a nd examines the problems specific to geophysical investigations in arid env ironments such as large mobile sand dunes. Initially, a background to the a rchaeology of the United Arab Emirates is provided with an emphasis on the significance of the site of Muweilah in the context of the Iron Age II (ca. 1100-600 BC) period in SE Arabia. This is followed by a discussion of the advantages of employing magnetometry on a site such a Muweilah. Having deta iled the methods employed and the practical limitations experienced, the re sults of the magnetometry survey and subsequent test-excavations are provid ed. A number of positive and negative anomalies were recorded and investiga ted through excavation. The results indicate that Muweilah is a settlement of significant site. The methodological and archaeological implications of these results are discussed. In conclusion, we show how the results of the geophysical survey significantly augment the current understanding of the s ite of Muweilah and provide the foundations for future informed archaeologi cal excavations.