Dr Hans-Peter Uerpmann was Professor of Archaeobiology at the Institute of Scientific Archaeology of the University of Tübingen, where he first worked for the interdisciplinary project The Tübingen Atlas of the Near and Middle East. His main topics were prehistoric subsistence economy in general and the ancient history of domestic animals in particular. This work took him into most areas of the Near and Middle East – including south-east Arabia. An early dromedary skeleton, found in a Bronze Age grave at Jebel al-Buhais, brought him to the Emirate of Sharjah in 1994 – which from then on remained the focus of his research.
Together with Margarethe Uerpmann, he has directed excavations at Stone Age sites in the Mleiha area. The discovery of Palaeolithic layers at the site fay-ne-01 has had a major impact on our knowledge of early human history. At present his research is concentrated on the Arabian horse and the dromedary.
Published by Medina Publishing:
Mleiha: The Unwritten History