The finding of Qatar’s oldest natural pearl bead has again shone the spotlight on the pearl-diving past of the peninsular country that is on its toes as the host of the upcoming FIFA 2022 World Cup to be played about eight months later.

A regional pit assignment led by Ferhan Sakal, Head of Excavation and Site Management at Qatar Museums, searched out the oldest known natural pearl bead in Qatar, corresponding to the earliest human settlements on the peninsula.

When we talk about 4600 BCE, the bead was found in that century in the crypt at Wadi Al Debaian, one of the country’s oldest Neolithic sites.

Till the oil was located from the peninsula close to 1940, fishing to find the pearls was the mainstay of the local population. People used wooden boats, also called ‘dhows’, and they dived in the sea without taking the help of oxygen tanks or diving suits to bring up oysters that would be later opened up to yield natural pearls. One might have to open scores or even hundreds of oysters to find one which has a pearl.

According to ‘Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi, Director of Archaeology at Qatar Museums, “Our team has excavated a discovery of significant historical and sociological importance, pointing us to the first traceable roots of Qatar’s human settlements and their use of the locally-occurring pearl enclaves.”

The recent findings of the grave point to the earliest known as evidence of Qatar’s antique pearl diving industry, which over centuries created the center of trade and economic influx to the country.

It also presents new understandings into the early cultures inhabiting the peninsula, including general social structures and wealth distribution.

Established a few kilometers away from south of Al Zubarah on Qatar’s northwest coastline, Wadi Al Debaian has yielded a number of important archaeological finds over the years, with pottery arising from the Ubad period (ca. 6500 to 3800 BCE) of South Mesopotamia, obsidian from Anatolia & further grave sites among the ancient remnants.