The UAE is embracing the future like no other nation, moving forward confidently — and it does so with its eyes firmly on the past. As a young nation just over four decades old, it is acutely aware of its history, of those who have gone before and of the value in maintaining its history and preserving its archeology.
The Dubai Museum of the Future Foundation has teamed up with leading archaeological scholars from Harvard University, the University of Oxford and Unesco to build an electronic platform to record and manage a database of sites across the region. The aim is to produce permanent three-dimensional images of those sites for future story. Indeed, the move comes at the same time as an exhibition on two ancient UAE towns of Ed-Dur and Mleiha opens at the Sharjah Archaeological Museum. Those settlements show the key trading role played by the people who lived here millennia ago.
It’s only by preserving sites of the past that we can ensure a continuity of collective memories for future generations. And that is a good thing for now — and after we’re gone.