Page 54 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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TABLE 3

GROUP D-'UBAID RELATED SITES IN BAHRAIN
Site No. Related Artifacts

101 barbed and tanged projectile points
167 barbed and tanged projectile points
205 awls
133 awls
78 awls and scrapers
102 awls
103 awls and scrapers

To summarize, the flint artifact assemblages of Bahrain have not been
studied in sufficient detail to furnish definitive answers. Most distinctive is the
Group D-TJbaid. The majority of these sites are clustered along the southwest
coast of the main island, however, still further sites may extend northward into the
more densely populated areas. Isolated surface finds have been reported
throughout this northern area, and Late ’Ubaid sherds have been collected from
the Diraz area by Sheikha Haya al-Khalifah (Oates, 1976). There is no evidence for
the earlier 'Ubaid pottery described for the Saudi Arabian coast by Masry, although
this, too, may be present but covered by later materials. Thus the picture of the
late prehistoric and early protohistoric period in Bahrain is still largely incomplete.
The existing evidence indicates an initial occupation from ca. 5000 B.C. to 4750
B.C. by a population utilizing the Group D flint tool kit. Perhaps coincidentally,
Bahrain became an island at about this same time as the surrounding lowlands were
inundated by rising sea level. With our knowledge of the eastern Arabian Group D-
HJbaid and what little is known from Bahrain, it is possible to suggest the presence
of hunting and gathering groups living in villages and adapted to a maritime
subsistence pattern. This involved fishing as well as hunting or trapping of game
indigenous to Bahrain. As in modern Bahrain, villages were probably located near
sources of artesian water or surface soils watered by recent runoff.