Page 53 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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Barbed and tanged projectile points are an easily recognizable form from some of
the Bahrain flint sites. One stratified Group D-Late 'Ubaid site, al-Markh,
excavated on the southwest coast of Bahrain by Roaf (1976) showed two
components. TTie uppermost is a Group D flint assemblage composed of debitage
and edge-modified flakes. Virtually no pottery was present. In the lower
component, however, the Group D assemblage occurred with 'Ubaid 4 or Late
'Ubaid pottery. Roaf infers that earlier groups had access to Mesopotamian
pottery, whereas later groups did not. Like the east Arabian 'Ubaid sites, the
depositional environment of the Bahrain Group D and 'Ubaid 4 artifacts points to a
coastal maritime subsistence adaptation. Various varieties of fish, as well as sea
and land mammals (i.e., dugong, hare, sheep, and goat) were eaten in the later
component while small fish provided the main portion of the diet in the early
component.
Certain of Glob's distinct lithic tool forms from Bahrain have been noted
from other collections. His "surface-flaked blade" and "flake chipped to a point"
(Glob 1954d, fig. 2d,e) are also reported from the east Arabian 'Ubaid sites at
Dosariyah by Masry (1974, fig. 49, no. 9). Similarly, his "awls" (Glob 1954d, fig.
5a,b) have parallels at Abu Khamis in an 'Ubaid time range (Masry 1974, fig. 81, nos.
5-7 from level 3 and nos. 1-3 from level 6). Other Group D-'Ubaid flint parallels
are found with 'Ain Qannas levels 4 and 9 (Masry 1974, fig. 74, no. 3, dated at 7060
+ 445 B.P.) and Bahrain site no. 127. Three Group D-'Ubaid sites with projectile
points have been described for Bahrain(Glob 1954d, Roaf 1976). These are sites 101,
167, and 205. In total, there are seven known sites with Group D affinities on
Bahrain. These are listed in Table 3. In addition to the artifacts listed, serrated
flint sickle blades are reported from four sites. These are 126, 98, 78, and 102.
Sickle blades appeared in southwestern Iran about 3200 B.C. and continued in use
until 2200 B.C. Tlius, these artifacts point to reuse of these 'Ubaid sites as well (H.
T. Wright, personal communication).