Page 233 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

Appendix I

Ceramic Analysis

Early Dilmun

Bibby recognized many distinct pottery forms related to the early Dilmun levels in
Bahrain. These were reported upon in the Danish journal Kuml throughout the
major period of Danish activity in Bahrain (1953-70). The most easily accessible
entry into the pottery sequences of Bahrain has been through Bibby’s more popular
work Looking for Dilmun (1969). As he explains, the first few seasons’ work were
devoted to the excavation of the temple at Barbar, a medieval Islamic fort, and
Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian buildings at Qala’at al-Bahrain. It was not until
the Neo-Assyrian sequences were penetrated that a connection with the Barbar
Temple was realized. Ceramic forms identical to those from the temple at Barbar
were present in the lower levels. The dominant pottery forms are shown in Figure
39. As his excavation continued deeper into the early levels, Bibby noted a distinct
change in the ceramic frequencies. A short-necked, red-ware jar with raised,
horizontal ridges (fig. 39b), linking the Barbar Temple with his own excavation,
decreased in frequency in favor of an earlier short-necked jar. TTie latter (fig. 39f)
was marked by a simple rim and a distinctive plastic decorative motif termed
"chainridge.” Similarly, a globular hole-mouth jar with a slightly thickened rim of
the same red ware, and sometimes also decorated with horizontal ridges (fig. 39a),
decreased in frequency in favor of plain-rimmed, hole-mouth jars in the lower
levels.
A simple frequency distribution showed the validity of this relationship
(Bibby 1971:108). Red, horizontal-ridged ware made up approximately 75 percent of
the sherds collected in the upper levels but it was nearly absent in the lower levels.
Red, chain-ridge ware, on the other hand, was of a consistently smaller percentage

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