The site of Saar: Dilmun reconsidered.

The site of Saar: Dilmun reconsidered. Geoffrey Bibby went to the Arabian Gulf Arabian Gulf:see Persian Gulf. 'looking forDilmun' in the 1950s and '60s as part of a Danish team ledinitially by Professor Glob glob - /glob/, *not* /glohb/ To expand wild card characters in a path name.In Unix the file name wild cards are:* = zero or more characters (E.g. UN*X)? = any single character[] any of the enclosed characters . For 20 years after this littlearchaeological research took place. In the 1980s the picture changedagain; much of the work undertaken was driven either by the need forrescue work, or by the accident of discovery. A major conference in1983, followed in 1986 by the publication of an important book Bahrainthrough the ages (al Khalifa & Rice 1986), gave fresh impetus towork in the area and, for almost the first time, some problem-orientedresearch was undertaken to answer specific questions.In summary, the state of knowledge prior to 1986 was as follows:thanks to the cuneiform cuneiform(kynē`ĭfôrm)[Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. texts, the earliest examples of which date backto the Uruk period The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC) is the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period. Named after the city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. of south Mesopotamia in the late 4th millennium,Dilmun's identification with Bahrain and its position as a vitalentrepot ENTREPOT. A warehouse; a magazine where goods are deposited, and which are again to be removed. in the trade route linking south Mesopotamia with the coppermines of Oman was already well known (Potts 1990: 85ff). The texts andthe archaeology together showed that by the early 2nd millennium Dilmunwas centred on the island of Bahrain, but the archaeological evidencefor this period was still limited. The first extensive modernarchaeological investigations of Bahrain were undertaken by Danish teamsunder Professor Glob, Peder Mortensen and Geoffrey Bibby at theQala'at al Bahrain, a large stratified stratified/strat��i��fied/ (strat��i-fid) formed or arranged in layers. strat��i��fiedadj.Arranged in the form of layers or strata. tell site on the north coastof the main Bahrain island. The site apparently covered almost 50 ha inthe so-called Early Dilmun period, usually dated to the first quarter ofthe 2nd millennium. Much of the early material at this site is deeplystratified under later material; the Danish expedition was only able toestablish a stratified sequence of pottery from the pre Early Dilmun,conventionally dated to about 2400 BC, to the Hellenistic periods, andto identify, among other buildings, a short length of the early2nd-millennium city wall and the fragmentary plans of half a dozenhouses (Hojlund 1994).Mortensen also uncovered a temple at the village of Barbar 3 km tothe southwest, which dated to the Early Dilmun period and gave furtherindications of its prosperity and the technical skills of its builders(Mortensen 1986). Finds from the temple reinforced the image of Dilmunas an important trading entrepot. There was lapis from Afghanistan,copper from Oman and artefacts such as the cylindrical vessels, mirrorhandle and copper bull's head which pointed to contacts witheastern Iran or even with Central Asia (Lombard & Kervran 1989: 30).The wide-ranging contacts of the people of Dilmun were already wellknown because of the finds of their seals in a distinctive local stylein excavations at Ur in south Mesopotamia (Gadd 1932), at Susa (Harper1992) and, more recently, from the island of Failaka (Kjaerum 1983).Rare examples are even known from the Indus valley (Rao 1986).Finds from the burial mounds which were for centuries the mostnotable archaeological feature of Bahrain, and which as a result havebeen extensively robbed, painted the same picture. The so-called RoyalGraves at Aali (Reade & Burleigh 1978) in particular demonstratedengineering and building skills of a high order as well as yielding theremains of a sophisticated material culture. These included fragments ofivory figurines and scraps from furniture as well as imported Iranianpottery Iranian Pottery production presents a continuous history from the beginning of the Iranian history until the present day.Ceramic is perhaps the earliest and the most important invention made by man. and a quadruple - spiral gold bead which can be parallelled asfar away as Troy (Lombard & Kervran 1989: 32). Rescue work on manyother less imposing and less well-furnished types of graves providedadditional useful information on the artefacts of the period andunderlined the special nature of the Aali burials. Unfortunately, theskeletal remains were frequently too badly preserved to allowdemographic studies to take place.What was missing from the picture of Dilmun was detailed informationon the domestic economy and social structure of Bahrain in the EarlyDilmun period, information on how local people actually lived and on howtheir society was organized. The London-Bahrain ArchaeologicalExpedition (LBAE) was set up in 1989 to identify and explore asettlement site of the period using modern methods of data collectionand analysis in order to fill this gap.(1)Excavations at Saar: the settingSome (unpublished) work had been undertaken by a jointBahraini-Jordanian expedition at the settlement site of Saar in thenorthwest of the island in the 1980s [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1OMITTED], but had been suspended. Permission was granted by the Ministerof Information(2) for the LBAE to re-start work there in the spring of1990. The remains of the essentially single-period Early Dilmun site,covering about 2-5 ha, lay immediately under the surface with nooverburden and appeared relatively undisturbed. The site lies in the leeof a north/south limestone ridge on which stood an extensive mound fieldcomposed of thousands of burials, now largely destroyed. To the east isan area rich in springs, today used for date gardens. The sea now liesabout 3 km to the west and about 7 km to the east; geological maps ofthe area indicate that the sabkha sabkha?A flat area between a desert and an ocean, characterized by a crusty surface consisting of evaporite deposits (including salt, gypsum, and calcium carbonate), windblown sediments, and tidal deposits. , or compacted sand, on the east comeswithin 3 km of the site and a tongue of sea reached much closer to theridge within living memory. It seems likely that this was the case inthe early 2nd millennium too, and there may well have have been asheltered anchorage below the site on this side.SubsistenceThe importance of the sea to the domestic economy of Saar wasimmediately obvious. Fish seem to have been the major source of proteinand the remains include many of both the inland and deep-water speciesfound in the waters around Bahrain today. Copper fish-hooks of varioussizes were present, and analogy with modern practice suggests that fixednets may also have been used. Large numbers of shells are also found,and include the pearl oyster. Contrary to modern perceptions which seethe pearl oyster as inedible, the quantities present suggest it wasprobably eaten, or used for bait, rather than sought for the pearls. Anumber of tiny seed pearls found in the course of the excavations areunpierced and were probably too small to have been of any value asornaments. The absence of Terebralia from the shell collection isinteresting, as this shell is found in large numbers further south onthe coast of the UAE. It lives in the roots of mangroves and its absencesuggests that the mangrove mangrove,large tropical evergreen tree, genus Rhizophora, that grows on muddy tidal flats and along protected ocean shorelines. Mangroves are most abundant in tropical Asia, Africa, and the islands of the SW Pacific. swamps did not occur around this coast in theearly 2nd millennium (Glover 1995). Some fragments of mangrove charcoalhave, however, been identified from Saar, but the author is inclined tosuggest that the wood may have been imported (Gale 1994: 223).Evidence for agriculture was also recovered. Scholars have in thepast assumed that most of the grain eaten in Dilmun was imported fromMesopotamia (e.g. Edens 1992), but Potts (1993) has challenged thisview. In addition, recent history demonstrates that, with irrigation irrigation,in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. ,cereals can be successfully grown on the island.Preservation of carbonized plant remains at Saar is poor; only a fewgrains of cereals were retrieved together with an even smaller amount ofchaff chaff1. chaffed hay; called also chop.2. the winnowings from a threshing, consisting of awns, husks, glumes and other relatively indigestible materials. so the question remains unresolved. However, there are largenumbers of quernstones and rubbers used in some form of (food?)processing, though flint sickle blades are very rare. Date palmsprovided the most common plant remains and dates were eaten in quantity,the leaves, fibres and wood also providing important raw materials(Nesbitt 1993).In summary, the environmental evidence points to a largelyself-sufficient community, dependent on the sea and date-gardens for itssubsistence. There is evidence for the presence of a small amount ofcereals, but it is not at the moment possible to tell if these areindigenous or imported.External contactsThe site was not entirely self-sufficient as the artefacts recoveredshow: many of the larger stone tools such as mortars and door socketsare made from locally available limestone, but finer-grained hard andsoftstones were imported, apparently from the Arabian mainland. Copper,present in small quantities, has yet to be analysed; the presence of alimited amount of 2nd-millennium Wadi Suq suq?n.Variant of souk. pottery from Oman suggeststhat the copper also came from here. The bitumen bitumen(bĭty`mən)a generic term referring to flammable, brown or black mixtures of tarlike hydrocarbons, derived naturally or by distillation from petroleum. from the site is ofIranian origin (Conan pers. comm.), by contrast with that from theQala'at which comes from Mesopotamia (Hojlund 1994). Externalcontacts seem to have varied between large centres such as theQala'at and the small local communities, perhaps reflectingindividual enterprise by local fishermen in the latter as opposed tostate-run trade in a major centre.There is also evidence for a flourishing trade within Dilmun itself.Hundreds of seal impressions have now been retrieved from the houses atSaar originating from bales, packages and jars. This adds anotherdimension to the study of the local economy. The fact that all thesealings are in the native Early Dilmun style shows plainly that, inspite of Dilmun's status as an international trading entrepot, mostof the commerce at this level was within the Dilmun polity itself, oreven within the Saar township. Their wide distribution also indicatesthat the majority of the inhabitants of Saar were economically active.The architectureThe settlement, of which almost 70% has now been excavated, offersfurther evidence on the social organization of the community. It wasdominated by the temple which stood on the highest point at an elevationof around 14 m at the junction of two major roads, now called MainStreet and Temple Road ([ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. The templeis isolated from the other buildings by two smaller alleys which runnorth and south of it, while a third runs further to the south andparallel to the other two. east of Main Street two more small roads havebeen identified leading eastwards, parallel to Temple Road, towards awell. The smaller roads divide up the houses in the centre of thesettlement into blocks of not more than four or five. (The situation isless regular on the outskirts of the settlement.) Main Road itself runssouth from the temple for about 200 m before running into a garden areawhere it becomes impossible to trace. The impression is of asurprisingly regular layout which appears to result from some sort ofoverall plan.This impression of planning is reinforced by a study of the houses[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. About 60 units have now beenidentified, though many have not been fully investigated. All are builtof roughly finished local stone; the majority conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?"fit, meetcoordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" a single planwith minor variations. In its simplest form this plan consists of tworooms, an outer L-shaped area and a smaller inner room, giving a totalarea of about 80 sq. m; some are smaller. The inner room was normallyroofed, but it is not entirely clear if the L-shaped one was. In House207 it appears to have been, as ceiling plaster was recovered from bothareas. In others, we may suggest, a light palm-leaf roof was supportedon the shallow buttresses which are still a feature of traditionalhouses on the island today. Some of the inner rooms are subdivided, asin House 50 for example, forming such small areas, sometimes clutteredwith tools and other artefacts, that we have to ask if they were storagerather than living areas.It is not merely the plans of these houses which are standardized; arange of fixtures and fittings are common to many of them. A doublebasin [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED] is often found in the entrancepassage with two bowls, a higher and a lower one, usually well-plasteredin grey plaster. A well-furnished house had as many as three cookinginstallations, each apparently for a different purpose. There are smallopen hearths with a clay rim, more elaborate double ones, sometimes witha clay tripod on one side on which to balance a round-bottomed pot, andwell-built tannurs for the making of fiat bread. In addition plasteredpits of uncertain function occur, and storage jars have also been foundsunk into the floors of the outer L-shaped areas.The remarkable uniformity of the layout of the settlement and of thedomestic architecture at Saar gives rise to important questions. Is thisa normal small town, or is it a special-purpose site, such as theWorkmen's village Workmen's village are a collective term applied to settlements of workers, foremen’s, scribes, architects, etc. usually located in the area of a major ancient site in Egypt, and mostly connected to the construction and decoration of tombs. at Amarna, or a military barracks? Who wasoverseeing the planning of the settlement? We cannot answer thesequestions. We can only say that there is no evidence from the smallfinds for anything other than normal domestic activities taking place.There are no recognizable tool-kits occurring on a regular basis; thereis no evidence for large-scale manufacturing; nor is there anyindication that it was a military barracks. Few weapons have been found,and there is neither observable hierarchy in the domestic architecture,nor any evidence for fortification fortification,system of defense structures for protection from enemy attacks. Fortification developed along two general lines: permanent sites built in peacetime, and emplacements and obstacles hastily constructed in the field in time of war. . In sum, there is no evidence forSaar being a special-purpose site. If we turn to the second question,the temple is the only non-domestic public building uncovered on thesite. We have to consider the possibility that the temple was theorganizing force behind the planning.The temple is built of the same local stone as the houses, heldtogether with gypsum gypsum(jĭp`səm), mineral composed of calcium sulfate (calcium, sulfur, and oxygen) with two molecules of water, CaSO4·2H2O. It is the most common sulfate mineral, occurring in many places in a variety of forms. mortar; the walls were originally heavily plasteredboth inside and out. It is trapezoidal in shape, 17-5 m long, with acurious bulge in the exterior wall in the northern corner. In its secondand last phase [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5 OMITTED] the rear of thebuilding is subdivided into three separate areas and the roof supportedon three centrally placed pillars: one square one at the western end;one originally square one in the centre, which had an additional skirtadded to it to make it look round at a later date; and a third round oneat the eastern end, where a single rather narrow door gives access tothe building. There are two altars, one on the south wall and one on thenorth side of the central pillar. Each is decorated with a semi-circularplastered feature at the back whose interpretation has aroused muchinterest: it may be a schematic rendering of bulls' horns, or itmay represent the crescent moon crescent moonMary often depicted standing on or above moon. [Christian Iconog.: Brewer Dictionary, 726]See : Ascension . There is evidence for burnt offeringsof fish and vegetable matter having been made on each altar.In addition to the altars there are three platforms, two against theeast wall and one along the north, at right angles so as to form a right angle or right angles, as when one line crosses another perpendicularly.See also: Right to the other two. Allthese features are very finely plastered and on the top of the largest,which survived intact from the earlier building, the imprint of arectangular base was still preserved. There were also traces of purplepaint on fragments of plaster found in this area. In the open areaoutside the front of the temple are five circular bases, possibly theremains of further offering tables or altars; as it is impossible toreconstruct their original height we cannot entirely exclude thepossibility that they were pillars. Similarly constructed bases can alsobe seen at the site of Diraz, 4 km to the north, where they seem to havebeen pillars supporting a portico portico(pôr`tĭkō), roofed space using columns or posts, generally included between a wall and a row of columns or between two rows of columns. or loggia loggiaHall, gallery, or porch open to the air on one or more sides. It evolved in the Mediterranean region as an open sitting room with protection from the sun. It is often a roofed, arcaded open gallery on an upper story overlooking a court, though it can also be a .(3)There is relatively little space within the building and, with theexception of the storage area at the west end, all of it seems to haveused for the same, apparently ritual purpose. The small finds providedno evidence for any administrative activity either. Only one seal wasfound, plus 77 fragments of sealing impressions. There are noimpressions which match the single seal and very few duplicateimpressions. This suggests that the sealings were coming into the templefrom a wide range of different sources. The goods from which thesealings came included jars and bundles; no definite door sealings wereidentified. As there is no evidence that the temple had a redistributivefunction, the incoming goods were probably used for the support of thetemple itself. In short, as there is no indisputable evidence foradministrative tasks being carried out in the temple, it is difficult tosee it as the organizing force within the community with control ofplanning.Nor, as we have seen, is there any marked hierarchy within thehouses, so there is no support for the presence of a 'secular'administration either. This impression of egalitarianism is reinforcedby the distribution of the small finds. There is some concentration ofimported goods in the houses down Main Street and at the top of TempleRoad, but a remarkable feature is the wide distribution of seals andsealings throughout the settlement. Many houses have not yet been fullyexcavated; perhaps half the total have already yielded seals orsealings.Seals and sealingsMore than 80 seals have now been found. This unexpected quantity ofglyptic glyp��tic?adj.Of or relating to engraving or carving, especially on precious stones.[Greek gluptikos, from gluptos, carved, from gluphein, to carve; see material from a small town or large village raises again thequestion of function. Their wide distribution throughout the settlementsuggests that many, perhaps most, members of the community owned a seal.Should we perhaps be looking again at the seal as an amulet amulet(ăm`yəlĭt), object or formula that credulity and superstition have endowed with the power of warding off harmful influences. , aprotective device, as well as an administrative tool? Four or five sealsare frequently found in a single house; as each house is apparently onlylarge enough to have housed a nuclear family, this suggests that eachmember of the family may have owned one. It is hard to believe that eachwas also involved in administrative or economic activity. (Or did one ortwo individuals in each domestic unit have several seals each?) Nocommon devices or motifs link the seals found in a single house sodesigns do not seem to have been specific to families. Nor do duplicatedesigns occur, suggesting that the design of seals may also have beencontrolled in some way. There is no correlation between the designs onseals and sealings from a single location; this is to be expected assealings were certainly attached to outgoing goods, not to onesremaining within the house.ConclusionsSeven seasons of excavations at Saar and recent work at theQala'at al Bahrain by a French team, so far unpublished, arebeginning to clarify the internal organization of Dilmun society. Theeconomic structure is certainly becoming clearer. Dilmun's internaleconomy was based on the sea and on date-garden agriculture, with thepossibility that some cereals were being grown as well. There was athriving internal market in which a broad sector of the populationparticipated, with some limited evidence for local participation inexternal trade too. It is not yet clear how essential supplies ofsoftstone and copper reached Saar; it is possible that they wereredistributed from a larger centre like that at the Qala'at whoseprosperity certainly rested on the well-known international trade.If Saar is taken as representative of Dilmun settlement - and thereare no grounds for seeing it as a special-purpose site - then the floorareas of the houses suggest the nuclear family was the basic unit withinsociety; the regularity of layout demonstrated at Saar suggests thepresence of an overall plan rather than organic growth. As Saar itselfhad little in the way of administrative structures, its regular layoutseems the product of administration from another centre. The nature ofthis administration, and its location, is unclear; references in theMari letters to a king of Dilmun (Groneberg 1992) and the unusuallylarge and well-supplied graves at Aali suggest a possible answer. Theadministrative centre Administrative Centre (in Norwegian administrativt senter; in Portuguese centro administrativo) is often used in several countries to refer to a county town, or other seat of regional/local government, or the place where the central administration of a commune is might have been at the Qala'at al Bahrain,the only fortified fortified (fôrt´fīd),adj containing additives more potent than the principal ingredient. site of this date yet identified, and the largest.There has been a tendency among scholars to see countriesgeographically peripheral to the great ancient civilizations ofMesopotamia and Egypt largely in terms of their relationship to thecentre: their indigenous culture has been presumed derivative, inferior,of little interest. Today it can be shown that the countries of the Gulfdeveloped in distinctive ways and evolved in very different directions.Their relationship with Mesopotamia was undoubtedly important ineconomic terms; in the case of Dilmun at least, the indigenouscivilization adapted foreign influences, of which Mesopotamia was onlyone, to form a distinctive whole. No mere shadow of its largerneighbour, it deserves to be studied on its own terms.1 The directors of the expedition were Robert Killick kil��lickalso kil��lock ?n.A small anchor, especially one made of a stone in a wooden frame.[Origin unknown.] , Jane Moon andthe author who retired as a director after five years.2 Without the support and encouragement of the Ministry ofInformation the work of the Expedition would not have been possible.Preliminary reports on the work have appeared as follows: Killick et al.1991; Crawford 1993; Woodburn & Crawford 1994; Moon et al. 1995.3 A full report on the temple can be found in Crawford et al. 1997.ReferencesAL KHALIFA, SHAIKHA HAYA ALI & M. RICE (ed.). 1986. Bahrainthrough the ages: the archaeology. London: Kegan Paul.BIBBY, G.1972. Looking for Dilmun. Harmondsworth: Penguin.CRAWFORD, H. 1993. London-Bahrain Archaeological Expedition:excavations at Saar 1991, Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy epigraphy:see inscription. 4: 1-19.CRAWFORD, H., R. KILLICK & J. MOON (ed.). 1997. The Dilmun templeat Saar. London: Kegan Paul.EDENS, C. 1992. Dynamics of trade in the ancient Mesopotamian'world system', American Anthropology 94: 118-39.GADD, C.J. 1932. Seals of ancient Indian style found at Ur,Proceedings of the British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars. The Academy is self-governing and independent. 18: 1-22.GALE, R. 1994. Charcoal from an early Dilmun settlement at Saar,Bahrain Saar (Arabic: سار) is a posh residential district of Bahrain. It is known to be a town of Ambassadors and wealthy Bahrainis with the famous Road 1725.The area also includes the poverty stricken Saar village. , Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy 5: 229-35.Glover, E. 1995. Molluscan mol��lus��canalso mol��lus��kan ?adj.Of or relating to the mollusks.n.A mollusk. evidence for diet and environment at Saarin the early second millennium BC, Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy6: 157-79.GRONEBERG, B. 1992. Le Golfe Arabo-Persique vu depuis Mari, in J.-M.Durand (ed.), Florilegium flor��i��le��gi��um?n. pl. flor��i��le��gi��aA collection of excerpts from written texts, especially works of literature.[New Latin fl marianum: receuil d'etudes enl'honneur de Michel Fleury: 69-79. Paris.HARPER, P. et al. 1992. The royal city of Susa. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (NY):Metropolitan Museum of Art.HOJLUND, F. & H.H. ANDERSON. 1994. Qala'at al-Bahrain 1: Thenorthern city wall and the Islamic fortress. Aarhus: JutlandArchaeological Society. Publication XXX.1.KJAERUM, P. 1983. Failaka/Dilmun: the second millennium settlement1(i): The stamp and cylinder seals. Aarhus: Jutland ArchaeologicalSociety. Publication XVII.i.KILLICK, R.G. et al. 1991. London-Bahrain Archaeological Expedition:1990 excavations at Saar, Bahrain, Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy2(2): 107-37.LOMBARD, P. & M. KERVRAN (ed.). 1989. Bahrain National Museum:archaeological collections 1. Bahrain: Ministry of Information.MOON, J. et al. 1995. London-Bahrain Archaeological Expeditionexcavations at Saar: 1993 season, Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy 6:139-56.MORTENSEN, P. 1986. The Barbar temple Barbar temple is an archaeological site located in the village of Barbar, Bahrain. The most recent of the three Barbar temples was rediscovered by a Danish archaeological team in 1954. A further two temples were discovered on the site with the oldest dating back to 3000 BC. : its chronology and foreignrelations Foreign relations may refer to: Diplomacy, the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or nations Foreign policy, a set of political goals that seeks to outline how a particular country will interact with other countries of the reconsidered, in al Khalifa & Rice (ed.): 178-85.NESBITT, M. 1993. Archaeobotanical evidence for early, Dilmun diet atSaar, Bahrain, Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy 4: 20-47.POTTS, D.T. 1990. The Arabian Gulf in antiquity 1. Oxford: ClarendonPress.1993. Rethinking some aspects of trade in the Arabian Gulf, WorldArchaeology 24(3): 423-40.RAO, S.R. 1986. Trade and cultural contacts between Bahrain and Indiain the third and second millennia BC, in al Khalifa & Rice (ed.):376-82.READE, J. & R. BURLEIGH. 1978. The 'Ali cemetery: oldexcavations and radiocarbon dating, Journal of Oman Studies 4: 75-83.WOODBURN, M & H.E.W. CRAWFORD. 1994. London-BahrainArchaeological Expedition: 1991-2 excavations at Saar, ArabianArchaeology & Epigraphy 5: 89-105.