Page 295 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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Early Islamic Bahrain (A.D. 630-1055)
Qala'at al-Bahrain lacks Early Islamic pottery, but this is not the case for Bahrain
in general. Surface collections from several sites along the north coast of the main
island do, in fact, have Early Islamic and Abbasid parallels. There have only been
three excavations in Bahrain that have provided stratified samples of these
materials. Two were undertaken by the Danish Expedition, and another was
excavated by the British Expedition in 1975. The Danish site no. 226 and the British
site no. 2073 may be related. Both are located on the east edge of the village of
Ali and are separated by the main road to Isatown. A third collection and that
chosen here for discussion and description is from the Barbar Temple. While this
site is predominantly a Barbar II phase occupation, one of the temple wells was
cleaned and reused during the Early Islamic through Abbasid period. This well was
destroyed during the Abbasid caliphate by infilling with pottery and rubble. TTie
fill, contains a ceramic assemblage of plain and glazed wares. Thus, it provides an
excellent reference for one portion of the Early Islamic period. Each of the forms
found has parallels with the Abbasid wares of Iraq (Adams 1965) as well as the two
sites mentioned above. Examples of whole vessels remaining in the Danish
collection are illustrated in Figures 63 and 64. Others have been returned to the
Bahrain Museum, where they are on display. Whitcomb (1978) notes that the Early
Islamic pottery of Hofuf is a coherent representation of the Iraqi collections.
Potts et al. (1978) observed a similar association near Dhahran. In general, this is
also the case for the Bahrain collection, which has direct parallels with both al-
Hasa, Dhahran, and Abbasid Mesopotamia. Therefore, it appears safe to adopt the
Early Islamic and Abbasid diagnostics of Adams (1965) and Gibson (1972) from Iraq
for use on Bahrain for the identification of the Early Islamic period.
TTie ceramic markers discussed below outline the Early Islamic period up
to the beginning of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. Soft green-glazed buff ware
jars decorated with broad line incisions in an advancing wave pattern, as well as
appliqued wavy lines and dots, have been termed Sasano-Islamic ware by
Whitehouse (1968). Both Lane (1947) and Sarre (1925) considered this form to be