Page 48 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

3. Prehistory and History of Bahrain

Previous Research

Archeological interest in Bahrain was great during the past century, but only the
last three decades of research have provided a sufficiently detailed knowledge of
the island's history and prehistory for the development of an overview. The
earliest known investigators were preoccupied with the excavation of tombs
(Durand 1879, Bent 1890, Prideaux 1908-9, Jouannin 1905). Indeed, BahrainTs surface
appeared to be dotted with as many as 100,000 tombs (Glob 1954b). An emphasis on
the study of grave goods has persisted into the modern period as well (MacKay
1929; Cornwall 1946a,b; Cleuziou, Lombard, and Salles 1981; Ibrahim 1982; Habgood
1982). It was not until 1953 that systematic field surveys of all archeological
materials were begun. The Danish Expedition, under the leadership of P. V. Glob
and T. G. Bibby, began an overall inventory of the island's historic and prehistoric
sites. In the subsequent eighteen years of detailed excavation and survey by the
Danes, as many as 145 separate sites were documented. Fifty-eight additional
tombs were excavated, but more significantly, major excavations were undertaken
at two important sites, Barbar Temple (Glob 1954a, 1955; Mortensen 1970a) and
Qala'at al-Bahrain (Glob 1954c, 1955; Bibby 1969). The data assembled provided the
impetus for renewed archeological research throughout the Persian-Arabian Gulf
coastal zones.
A British team under the guidance of A. McNicoll and M. Roaf followed
the Danes. Between 1973 and 1976, they expanded upon earlier surveys by
describing 70 additional sites and by excavating important new areas. During the
winter of 1975-76, the author made additional surface surveys coupled with
geomorphological research. Twenty-five more sites were recorded and sampled. In

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