Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Masirah Island enjoys a unique strategic location at the Arabian Sea, which significantly contributed to trade activity and navigation in ancient times. Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al Ghailiani, a researcher in history said in his book The old history of Masirah Island that the inhabitants of Masirah Island have for long associated their lives with the sea and have made appreciable contributions in trade and sea navigation.
They have contributed to ship / boat building and exported the same to the neighbouring areas including Yemen. He added that human skeletons dated back to 4790-3826 BC were the oldest found in Oman and the Arabian Peninsula. There are over 127 archaeological sites in Masirah with items dated back to the bronze age, iron age and Islamic period,” he said.
Dr. Al Ghailiani said that Masirah is known for four types of sea turtles and rare plants called Stripagrastis Masirahenis along with the presence of mountain gazelle known as Gazella Cora and seashell known as Cardium Pseudolima that are only found in Masirah.
Masirah has been mentioned in a book on the tour around the Sea of Eretria during the first century AD and was famous for trading in shields made from turtles’ shells. The skilled people there were also famous for making boats which they used for sailing from Masirah to Sur and North Oman to the ports of Yemen. There were 15 boats as at the beginning of the 20th century.
He said that the main archaeological sites discovered in Masirah Island included the graveyards of Safrat Al Hadhri, Wadi Madhi, Wadi Khasit, Wadi Maghar and Wadi Maghla among others.
He also added that the things found at the Island included small pots and pottery items, stones, rings made of shell and gemstones, human bones, bones of turtles and birds and spear heads made of metal among others.
