Forensic Science Laboratory of Abu Dhabi Police identifies the gender
The skeleton was found during excavations directed by Dr Mark Beech for ADIAS earlier this year on Abu Dhabi's western island of Marawah. During work at Site MR-ll, a series of stone buildings were identified. In one of them, there was a human skeleton buried on a stone platform.
The skeleton was not well enough preserved, however, for the ADIAS team to determine whether it was of a man or a woman.
Now, thanks to the expertise of the Forensic Science Laboratory of the Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters, the sex of the skeleton has been determined by the recovery of ancient DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, is the chemical at the centre of the cells of living things, which control the structure and purpose of each cell and carries the genetic information during reproduction.
Radiocarbon dating, as well as associated finds, demonstrates that the skeleton dates to around 7500 years ago. This makes the skeleton, and the building in which it was found, the earliest evidence yet found of the presence of Man in the Emirates.
Among parts of the skeleton that were preserved were several teeth, and three of these have now been examined by Col. Ahmad Hassan AI-Awadi, Director of the Forensic Science Laboratory and the Forensic Pathology Unit at Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters. Although the ancient DNA was not well preserved, using the latest forensic science techniques, the Forensic Laboratory was able to determine that the skeleton was a male from its DNA profile.
Preliminary studies suggest that the male individual was between approximately 20-40 years in age. Further research on the skeleton is being continued by the Abu Dhabi Police forensic scientists, while ADIAS plans a further season of archaeological excavations at the site in March-April next year.
,"We are delighted with the results of this collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Police Forensic Laboratory," said Peter Hellyer, Executive Director of ADIAS. "The expertise of the police forensic scientists has provided valuable new information about the oldest. human being ever discovered in the UAE. We are grateful to His Highness Major General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed AI Nahyan, the Minister of Interior, for his support for our work. We look forward to further collaboration with the police on our studies of ancient skeletons from Abu Dhabi's coast and islands." Dr. Beech, commenting on this finding said: "we are happy with the result as we felt closer the first man who lived in the UAE".
The ADIAS work on Marawah is carried out in association with the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, which is responsible for the conservation of Marawah and adjacent islands, as well as the surrounding seas, as part of the Marawah Marine Protected Area.
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