Page 235 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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but present in all levels. On this ceramic basis, Bibby distinguished two separate
occupations: City I, an early phase of the early Dilmun period, and City H, a later
phase of the Early Dilmun period.
In the final few seasons' work in the late 1960s, a potentially earlier phase
of pottery was recovered from a comparatively small sounding at the base of the
City I levels in the north wall trench. What had been considered "bedrock” was
recognized as farush, a rapidly forming limestone deposit common to shallow
lagoons along the gulf coasts (Shinn 1969). These layers were broken through and
were found to contain both sherds and faunal remains. Tbus, the Early Dilmun
sequence had a potential earlier component. After penetrating several such farush
layers, interbedded with beach sands, the north wall excavation terminated in
greenish clays appoximately 0.7 m above mean high water. A portion of the this
excavation is reported upon here.
The north wall trench is located between 99 and 104 m from the beach at
Qala'at al-Bahrain. Several soundings were made along the city wall in an
east-west direction. Although a full statistical analysis of these materials would
be desirable, this was not possible because a statistically viable sample was not
collected in the early years of excavation. Fourteen separate levels were studied.
Only the potentially diagnostic sherds were saved from the upper nine (levels 17-

Figure 39: Barbar Period Pottery (Bibby 1969, 1971)

a. Hole-mouth jar; red ware with sand temper, light yellow halos occur around
individual sand grains (Barbar ware); City EE.
b. Short-necked jar with triangular rim and raised horizontal ridges; sand
tempered red ware, light yellow halos occur around individual sand grains
(Barbar ware); City n.
c. Hole-mouth jar with short spout (Barbar ware); City I and IL
d. Small, flat bowl; yellow-buff ware; City L
e. Large baseless vessel with angular ridges below rim (Barbar ware);
City I.
f. Short-necked, plain-rimmed jar with chain-ridge motif (Barbar ware);
City I.

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