Page 17 - DILMUN NO 7

geometrical shapes. Various types of shaped decoration on the
It is interesting to note that a simple form external wall of rubble house.
of multicolour ornamentation was used on ’ush
construction. Such a decoration is found in
the town of Abu ’Arish, where the housewife f
attends and performs the decoration and or­
namentation of the interior plastered wall of
the ‘ush. The multicolour dyes used in Abu
‘Arish arc prepared locally by extracting them
directly from their natural source of particular
plants and a selective type of mud.
The shaped decoration was used mostly
externally to give the house a pleasant effect
and an attractive appearance. It was normally
found either as part of the external walls or
as a stepped pinnacle of various forms. The
shaped decoration was widely used in the rubble
and mud houses of the early systems of house
construction.
The shaped decoration of the external
walls of the rubble house was created by reces­
sing the filling walls in respect to the columns
and adding various types of dummy arches. In the highest point of the house, such as at the
a similar manner, dummy arches of different top of the parapet walls. Nevertheless, this
styles were employed between open columns to was not always the ease, as the stepped pinnacle
convey a beautiful effect of shaped decorations. was sometimes used to terminate the edge walls
The stepped pinnacle shaped decoration at different levels of the house. This also
was utilized extensively on the mud houses. included veranda fence walls. The stepped
However, it was sometimes used on the roof of pinnacles were built in different sizes, thicknes­
of the rubble house. The stepped pinnacles ses and styles, as a solid unit or with an opening
were used in a repeatable fashion, generally at of geometrical shapes.
AWffi

AA/WWI

Various types of stepped pinnacles found in
mud and nibble houses.
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