Page 79 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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attempts at control of the sea. Oppenheim (1954) felt that trade with Bahrain may
have been great at this time because the Achaemenid kings of Susa wore
magnificent necklaces of pearls.
In Bahrain, the Neo-Assyrian through Achaemenid episode is marked by
some of the most substantial architecture present on the island. Ashlar masonry
walls replaced the cemented rubble of the Kassite period. A large building
complex of this type was excavated at Qala'at al-Bahrain by the Danish Expedition
(Glob 1954c, Bibby 1969, 1971). Bibby described the scale of architecture as
impressive, but the cultural deposits associated with these buildings were thin.
There was no occupation level in the buildings. The floors were barren and covered
solely by debris from the collapsed ceilings and upper walls. This debris was
immediately overlain by Hellenistic levels. Apparently, the buildings stood vacant
for an extended period or were looted prior to the collapse of the upper structures.

The Hellenistic Era

Contemporary geographers and travelers of the Hellenistic era did not appear to
have been overly impressed with Bahrain. In Arrian's history of Alexander the
Great, reference was made to Alexander's order to explore the Arabian coast with
a naval force in preparation for a renewed military campaign there. Arrian, basing
his information on reports by Aristobulus, related that Alexander was informed by
his naval commander Nearchus of two islands near the mouth of the Euphrates.
The first was not far from the river mouth. It was smaller and covered with thick
wood. According to Aristobulus, Alexander commanded it to be called Icarus—now
identified by Jeppesen (1960) as Failaka. The other island was:

reported to be distant from the mouth of the Euphrates about a day
and a night's sail for a ship running before the wind; it was called
Tylus; and it was large, and neither rough nor wooded for the most
part; but the sort which bore garden fruits and all things in due
season. [Arrian 1933:273-75]