Illuminating Discoveries brings together more than 100 artefacts in AlUla.
AlUla is home to soaring stones, world-class hotels and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Now, the site has welcomed an exciting exhibition, Illuminating Discoveries – Uncovering the Layers of Dadan’s History.
The ancient city of Dadan was the former capital of the Kingdoms of Dadan and Lihyan. The exhibition offers an in-depth exploration of the city’s crafts, daily practices and evidence of intercultural exchange. Learn about how the city was a major trading centre on the Incense Road.
Illuminating Discoveries brings together more than 100 artefacts, which have been excavated over the past five years. An international archaeological team has worked at Dadan, and the mountaintop sanctuary of Umm Daraj.
Over time, the Incense Road became one of the most influential trading networks of the ancient world. Thanks to the domestication of the camel, it opened vast overland trade routes, enabling the incense trade to flourish and transforming Dadan into a hub of commerce.
The exhibition is organised into five thematic sections: Crafts and Daily Life in Ancient Dadan; Exchange and Trade; Ancient Beliefs and Rituals; Scripts in Stone; and Umm Daraj. Artefacts on display include figurines linked to Greece, a Roman or Byzantine bone hairpin, and stone inscriptions written in a South Arabian language.
Highlights also include a copper-alloy spearhead dating to 400–50 BCE and a terracotta head dating to the late 4th to 1st century BCE. Plus, a statue was uncovered in a shrine at the base of Dadan’s cliffs.
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GO: Visit www.experiencealula.com for more information.