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On the Date of the Temple at Barbar

in Bahrain
Reprinted from Artibus Asiae Vol. 33 No. 4
with the kind permission of Peder Mortensen
By Peder Mortensen

goblets found in abundance in the fill of the
The mound covering the temple at Barbar
platform and by a painted sherd, found in a
was found by Professer Glob during a survey in
layer north of the first temple.
1953, and it was excavated by Danish archaeolo­
gists during eight seasons from 1954 to 1961. It
is situated about 300 meters from the sea on the
edge of a slightly lower plateau which seems to ■M
,v
have been under water in old times, so that
originally the temple may have been lying at a &
bay, perhaps surrounded by water on two sides. m
It is very peculiar that the temple was not ■m
surrounded by a town. The only houses con­
nected with the temple belong to a period when
it was already in decay, but there seems to be a i
modest town of the same period as the temple,
in the tell on which the modern village of ill
M
Barbar is built, not far from the temple site.
During the excavations we were able to
distinguish three main phases in the architec­
tural development of the temple. But unfor­
tunately the structures of the earliest phases
were partly destroyed by the later buildings
The earliest temple was built on a rectan­
gular platform nearly 25 m. long and 16-18 m.
wide, surrounded* by a stone wall. On top
of the platform there were along .the edge
remains of small rooms placed around an open
courtyard. From the west a ramp or stairway
led up to the temple, and in the southwestern
corner two staircases descended to a square
well. Undoubtedly, the water in this well
played an important part in .the cult already !
in the time of the earliest temple, and the Fig. 1. Clay goblets from the foundation deposit
significance of the well is shown by the fact of the first temple.
that it was also in use - in a slightly altered
outer form during the second and third phases The goblets, which are 10-14 cm. high,
of the temple. A deposit consisting of nearly have a conical upper part and a low foot, that
a hundred conical clay goblets and a few in some cases is solid and in other cases hollow.
weapons of copper was found in the fill of the They are irregularly shaped, made of clay con­
platform. taining some lime and tempered with fine sand,
The most reliable evidence for the dating and fired so that the surface as well as the core
of the earliest temple is provided by the clay has a pale red colour.

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