Iron Age copper production and the ‘ritual economy’ of Saruq al-Hadid (Dubai, UAE)

Saruq al-Hadid is a site of long-term, persistent, seasonal human activities stretching from the Neolithic period into the Early Islamic period. Situated on the southern border of Dubai, on the fringes of the Rub’ al-Khali desert (Figure 1), the site has been explored by a number of archaeological teams since its first discovery in 2002 (Valente et al. 2020; Weeks et al. 2019b). This research has served to clarify the nature and extent of human activities at the site and their changing nature through time, although a coherent and nuanced understanding of this complex and enigmatic site remains a focus