The Jabal al-Yamh and Ḥattā Valley survey (Emirate of Dubai, UAE): GIS tools applied to archaeological survey and research

Abstract

The survey of extensive and topographically irregular landscapes is not easy. Survey teams often must be creative to cover the largest area possible, in a short time, with limited budgets, without losing quality and effectiveness in their work. The use of techniques employing geographic information system (GIS) tools has tremendously improved the efficiency and quality of the surveys. Such techniques were employed in the Jabal al-Yamh and Ḥattā Valley (Emirate of Dubai, UAE), and their methodology, implementation and effectiveness are discussed in this paper. The Jabal al-Yamh Research Project, which began in 2018 to survey, excavate, restore and research the prehistoric tombs in the Jabal al-Yamh and the surrounding Ḥattā Valley, thus used primarily GIS tools employing remote sensing and probabilistic analysis to identify a large number of tombs in this rugged topography, delimitating areas more likely to contain tombs. On the other hand, identifying tomb distribution and orientation patterns through GIS data queries also allowed us to answer several sociocultural questions posed during the development of this project. This paper will thus discuss two primary purposes of this project's survey: methods for identifying new tombs for further excavation and protection, on the one hand, and the interpretation of those same tombs' emplacement, attending to their distribution and orientation pattern, on the other, thus developing a theoretical and predictive model of the distribution of prehistoric tombs in the area.