Page 271 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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items on display in the museum from each of the three temples were examined.
Table 8 is a freqency distribution for the Barbar temples using the key artifacts
employed in the north wall analysis.
The greatest affinity between the Barbar temples and Qala'at al-Bahrain
is with the Barbar II ceramic sequence. Porous plates, for example, that occur only
in the Barbar II levels at the qalat are found in all three temple deposits. The same
is true for red ridged ware, triangluar rims, and complex hole-mouths. Although
the frequencies are not identical, they resemble those from Barbar n levels.
Chain-ridge ware is abundant only in Temple I, a possible link with the Barbar I-
Barbar n transition. A rim sherd of a buff-ware jar with an everted rim from
Temple I is suggestive of those from the sample studied. Black paint on red ware is
present, however, in both Temples n and m. Temple in has a sherd identical to
black on red painted graveware from the Wadi Suq in Oman that Frifelt dates to
ca. 2000 B.C. (Frifelt 1975b, fig. 22b).
A comparison of Tables 7 and 8 leaves the distinct impression that only
the upper portion of the north wall sequence is represented in the Barbar temples.
New interpretations will certainly be possible when a greater part of the total
collection is analyzed. But, the evidence presented here suggests it is
contemporary with the Barbar n phase of Early Dilmun. The high percentage of
chain-ridge ware in Temple I may point to the late Barbar I phase for the
construction of the first temple. Uncertainty must still be attached to the single
Jemdet Nasr painted sherd from Temple I. It is possible that there are sites of this
period on the island, but they do not appear to be intimately related to the temples
at Barbar. The proposed Early Dynastic goblets (Mortensen 1970a) seem to be later
as well. They are not identical with the Early Dynastic conical goblets described
by Nissen (Adams and Nissen 1971) in that the Temple I goblets have hollow bases
whereas the Early Dynastic bases are solid. The north wall section is only partially
helpful in this problem. Only one example of these goblets was present in the
collection studied. TTiis came from level 20, well within the Barbar n levels. The
pottery and seals seem to link the temples to the Isin-Larsa period and possibly to
the late Ur HI period. Final answers await Mortensen^s forthcoming analysis.