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1,400-year-old cross found in Abu Dhabi
A 1,400-year-old Christian cross has been found on Sir Bani Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The cross is about a foot long and seven inches wide and was molded on a plaque of stucco plaster. The cross plaque is intricately designed and in excellent condition, cracked but complete. It is an eight-point cross with four small eight-point crosses inside circles embedded into the four Vs of the ends and in the center where the arms intersect. It stands on a stepped base that represents the hill of Calvary
These iconographic elements — the stepped base, the leaves, the pointed ends, the complexity of the abstract tableau — are characteristic of Christian crosses in the Middle and Near East.
“Visually, every element of the plaster cross incorporates regional motifs,” Maria Gajewska, an archaeologist who leads the team on the island, told The National. “The stepped pyramid at the bottom, representing the Golgotha; the leaves sprouting from the base; the shape of the cross arms; the dots at the ends and the setting within a niche all find regional parallels in the Gulf and Mesopotamia.”
Archaeologists with the Department of Culture and Tourism discovered the plaster cross in the courtyard of an ancient house. It was face down in the soil and a fingerprint on the back of the plaque caught the eye of archaeologist Hager Al Menhali. The team turned the stucco plaque over and were stunned to see an the intricate cross.
Today Sir Bani Yas island is wildlife reserve home to oryx, gazelles and cheetahs as well as an open archaeological park, but in Late Antiquity is was home to a thriving early Christian community. A church and monastery dating to the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. were discovered there in the 1990s, identified by another cross plaque, albeit a much smaller and less elaborate one. A group of nine courtyard houses were unearthed nearby, but it was not clear whether they were associated with the monastery. The discovery of this cross confirms that the housing was indeed connected to its monastic neighbor.
It is thought senior monks may have lived in solitude in the courtyard buildings and walked across to the church for mass or other services, before returning. Another theory is that the buildings could have functioned as an ancient retreat for wealthy Christians to get away from the world – living and praying by lamplight. Ms Gajewska said blackened earth found on the ground in the buildings could indicate places where residents had lamps.
One large stone building examined this season was built using limestone and coral from the island. Ms Gajewska said the buildings were unusual because they are extremely well made, featuring thick walls to tackle the heat and cisterns for water. That is an indication of a more comfortable existence than simple hermit life.
“They could have been places where senior monks who prayed at the church lived permanently, or else where people retreated to for periods of seclusion, perhaps during Christian Lent,” she said.
The fate of the community is not known. Christian denominations in the region were riven by schisms and philosophical disputes, and their demise was accelerated with the arrival of Islam. Christian and Islamic communities did co-exist in the transitional period, and there is no evidence at the Sir Bani Yas site of a catastrophic event or conflict. The buildings were clean and tidy, not damaged or derelict. There was no rubble or decay indicative of a slow decline. It seems the residents intended to return.
Archaeologists plan to return to continue the excavation of the courtyard houses and hope to answer some questions about how the community lived and died. They will also be added to the visitor trail that marks the archaeological sites of the island.
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