A new edition by Sharjah Museums Authority, entitled “Ancient Inscriptions and Writings in the Emirate of Sharjah”, opens the door for those interested in the history of inscriptions and writings to learn about the history and civilization of the United Arab Emirates.
The book, which provides a comparative analytical study, by Khaled Hussein Saleh Mansour, Senior Researcher at the Sharjah Archeology Museum, is one of the most important publications for researchers, archaeologists and students, as it is a historical reference. Â
The author provides the reader with a historical reference tracing and identifying inscriptions and writings.
The publication consists of two main sections that include five parts. The first section includes a comprehensive introduction to writing and its beginnings, forms and types, the invention of the alphabet, and the use by the peoples of the Near East with reference to the inscriptions of the Arabian Peninsula.
The second section sheds light on the languages of the writings discovered in the Emirate of Sharjah, by referring to the Musnad script and the Zabur script, discovered at the site of Mleiha, as well as Aramaic inscriptions, which is an important language of the ancient Near East.
The publication includes a section entitled “Man and Writing”, on writing and language, pre-writing, the need to write, and the journey of writing.
The “Beginnings of Writing in Sharjah” section includes writing in Sharjah and the UAE, and the inscriptions discovered in Sharjah, while the “Inscriptions discovered in Mleiha” section includes the inscriptions written in the Southern Musnad script in Mleiha.
The section “Indications of the inscriptions discovered in Mleiha” includes confirmation of a number of evidence proven by the inscriptions discovered in Mleiha, the most important of which are: the Arabism of Mleiha, the relations with the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the development of the political system in Mleiha, the early use of writing in Mleiha, and the similarity of the names mentioned in Mleiha.
The public may review the information presented in the book by visiting the Sharjah Archeology Museum, as well as visiting the antiquities that have been discovered in Sharjah since the beginning of archaeological excavations in 1973 AD until now.
Successive excavations have proven that the history of Sharjah is deeply rooted, and that settlements and villages appeared on its lands thousands of years ago. Visitors to the museum are able to see the past and learn about the civilisations in the region since the Stone Age by viewing the tools of daily life, coins, jewelry, pottery and ancient weapons used by people who lived on the same land for thousands of years.