Aflāj discoveries in al‑ʿAyn — exploring and documenting the network of shafts and tunnels recently revealed below the streets of the modern city

Abstract

Over the past four years the Historic Environment Department of the Department of Culture & Tourism (DCT Abu Dhabi) has recorded around sixty separate ancient aflāj or underground water channels in more than 150 different locations within the city of al‑ʿAyn. These new discoveries have been made in three main areas of the city — around Hīlī Oasis in the north, to the east of Qaṭṭāra and Jīmī Oases, and in the Central District of the downtown area to the east of al‑ʿAyn Oasis.

This paper will give a brief introduction to the context of ongoing aflāj discoveries, most of which have taken place during archaeological monitoring of infrastructure and construction projects, and to the archaeological methodologies employed to investigate and record them.

The aflāj of al‑ʿAyn present several distinct typologies and range in depth and mode of construction, from plastered brick surface channels to deep subterranean tunnels up to 15 m below modern street level. The paper will argue that these typologies reflect both the availability and exploitation of different water sources over time and will focus on case studies provided by two recently excavated archaeological sites — in the areas of Falaj Al Mazmi (Falaj al-Māzmī) and Hai Al Murabba (Ḥayy al-murabbaʿ)— to examine in detail new evidence for the various techniques used to excavate, construct, and cover the aflāj. It will also review the key stratigraphic relationships between the different typologies and use these to outline a chronology that reflects the relationship of the aflāj to the wider hydrological context of the region, their interface with changing agricultural practices and locations over time, and the role they have played in the development of the oasis landscape of al‑ʿAyn.