- United Kingdom
Tom Collie
University of Copenhagen, QIAH, Department Member
Ongoing excavations at the site of Al Zubārah, Qatar have revealed a number of images of boats and ships engraved into plaster on walls at the site. The images offer a new insight into the vessels used and encountered by the inhabitants... more
Ongoing excavations at the site of Al Zubārah, Qatar have revealed a number of images of boats and ships engraved into plaster on walls at the site. The images offer a new insight into the vessels used and encountered by the inhabitants of the settlement, which was occupied chiefly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This paper presents the vessels within their archaeological contexts, describes their iconographic features, and proposes identifications of their types based on typological comparison with other iconographic evidence. It considers the functions of these craft within the maritime economy of Al Zubārah, and their meaning within the social and cultural life of the settlement.
Indigenous depictions of pre-twentieth-century regional watercraft are relatively rare, making the Al Zubārah images a welcome addition to the field of nautical studies in and of the Gulf region. The images have also highlighted tension between iconography and written historical sources. Do some of these images depict an elusive and specific vessel type referred to as the dāw, as some sources suggest? Or should we accept that the familiar but etic term ‘dhow’ is an orientalist placeholder for a rich variety of regional craft? The problem is investigated through British colonial records and historical accounts and iconography.
This paper presents the vessels within their archaeological contexts, describes their iconographic features, and proposes identifications of their types based on typological comparison with other iconographic evidence. It considers the functions of these craft within the maritime economy of Al Zubārah, and their meaning within the social and cultural life of the settlement.
Indigenous depictions of pre-twentieth-century regional watercraft are relatively rare, making the Al Zubārah images a welcome addition to the field of nautical studies in and of the Gulf region. The images have also highlighted tension between iconography and written historical sources. Do some of these images depict an elusive and specific vessel type referred to as the dāw, as some sources suggest? Or should we accept that the familiar but etic term ‘dhow’ is an orientalist placeholder for a rich variety of regional craft? The problem is investigated through British colonial records and historical accounts and iconography.
Research Interests: Maritime Archaeology, Maritime History, Arabian Gulf, Nautical Archaeology, Qatar, and 13 moreMaritime, Arabian/Persian Gulf Studies, Arabian/Persian Gulf Archaeology, Traditional boats of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Gulf, Maritime Studies, Nautical, Qatar Archaeology, Nautical Archeaology, Nautical Studies, History Of Qatar, Al Zubarah, Ports & Maritime Security, and Dhows
This paper briefly summarizes the results of the 2010–2011 archaeological fieldwork at the late eighteenth–twentieth-century abandoned city of al-Zubārah in north-west Qatar. The excavations in five areas inside the town, covering... more
This paper briefly summarizes the results of the 2010–2011 archaeological fieldwork at the late eighteenth–twentieth-century abandoned city of al-Zubārah in north-west Qatar. The excavations in five areas inside the town, covering courtyard houses, a suq, a palatial compound, and a midden are discussed.
Research Interests:
Ongoing excavations at the site of Al Zubārah, Qatar have revealed a number of images of boats and ships engraved into plaster on walls at the site. The images offer a new insight into the vessels used and encountered by the inhabitants... more
Ongoing excavations at the site of Al Zubārah, Qatar have revealed a number of images of boats and ships engraved into plaster on walls at the site. The images offer a new insight into the vessels used and encountered by the inhabitants of the settlement, which was occupied chiefly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This paper presents the vessels within their archaeological contexts, describes their iconographic features, and proposes identifications of their types based on typological comparison with other iconographic evidence. It considers the functions of these craft within the maritime economy of Al Zubārah, and their meaning within the social and cultural life of the settlement. Indigenous depictions of pre-twentieth-century regional watercraft are relatively rare, making the Al Zubārah images a welcome addition to the field of nautical studies in and of the Gulf region. The images have also highlighted tension between iconography and written historical sources. Do some of these images depict an elusive and specific vessel type referred to as the dāw, as some sources suggest? Or should we accept that the familiar but etic term ‘dhow’ is an orientalist placeholder for a rich variety of regional craft? The problem is investigated through British colonial records and historical accounts and iconography.
Research Interests: Maritime Archaeology, Maritime History, Arabian Gulf, Nautical Archaeology, Qatar, and 12 moreMaritime, Arabian/Persian Gulf Studies, Arabian/Persian Gulf Archaeology, Maritime Studies, Nautical, Qatar Archaeology, Nautical Archeaology, Nautical Studies, History Of Qatar, Al Zubarah, Ports & Maritime Security, and Dhows
Between September 2017 and March 2018 Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) carried out two separate phases of excavation at land at Eye Airfield Industrial Estate, near Yaxley in Suffolk. The locations of each excavation area were based on... more
Between September 2017 and March 2018 Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) carried out two separate phases of excavation at land at Eye Airfield Industrial Estate, near Yaxley in Suffolk. The locations of each excavation area were based on the results of previous stages of evaluation (conducted by OA East in June 2017). Areas 2A and 2B (totalling 0.451ha) were located immediately due north of Castleton Way and immediately due east of the A140 roadway. Excavation was undertaken between 25th September – 22nd October 2017. Following this, Area 3 (totalling 1.53ha) was stripped and excavated between 6th November 2017 and 20th March 2018, located in the north of the development area and immediately to the east of the old runway. The excavations revealed remains spanning the Bronze Age through to the post-medieval period. Phase 1 represented Bronze Age activity, which included the remnants of a burnt flint mound, encountered in the south-east corner of Area 3. The principal features associat...
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Between the 10th of July and the 11th of August 2017, Oxford Archaeology East (OAE) carried out an archaeological excavation on land to the east of Fairfield Road, Framlingham in advance of residential housing. This programme of work was... more
Between the 10th of July and the 11th of August 2017, Oxford Archaeology East (OAE) carried out an archaeological excavation on land to the east of Fairfield Road, Framlingham in advance of residential housing. This programme of work was a response to discoveries made during an archaeological trial trenching programme delivered by OAE in May 2017. The excavation took place on land immediately east of Fairfield Road on a field which sloped at a moderately steep gradient from east to west. Three excavation areas totalling 0.32 hectares were opened in the northern half of the field along with three 50m long trenches. Archaeological remains ranging in date from the middle Anglo-Saxon period through to the 19th century were identified. The finds assemblage from the excavation was large, indicating the area was used extensively. It reinforced the findings from the previous archaeological trench evaluation, where widespread dumps of domestic rubbish dating from the medieval and the post me...
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On the 12-13th June 2017, Oxford Archaeology East carried out an archaeological evaluation at 74 Fen End, Willingham Cambridgeshire (TL 4422 6419). Two trenches were excavated and no archaeological features were recorded or finds recovered.
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Between the 3rd to the 8th October 2018, Oxford Archaeology East conducted an archaeological evaluation at land west of the A140, Yaxley, Suffolk, centred TM 1247 7504. A total of 11 30m-long evaluation trenches were excavated along the... more
Between the 3rd to the 8th October 2018, Oxford Archaeology East conducted an archaeological evaluation at land west of the A140, Yaxley, Suffolk, centred TM 1247 7504. A total of 11 30m-long evaluation trenches were excavated along the footprint of a proposed access road between Leys Lane and the A140. Six of the trenches contained archaeological features, including nine ditches, one pit and one post hole. The earliest securely-dated features were located at the northern end of the site and comprised two ditches and a pit yielding medieval pottery of the 11th-14th century. Historic mapping suggests that that these were linked to Green-edge/Common-edge settlement to the west of Pye Road – a former Roman road located along the line of the A140. A series of other ditches aligned broadly north to south and east to west followed the dominant axis of existing fields, and correspond to boundaries depicted on the 1885 Ordnance Survey First Edition map of Yaxley. By contrast, at the far wes...