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acrifice of retiles, their lacing in bols and the deosit of these under the lfoor of‫؟‬
a sacred building. Only a٦ oerall interretation, based on the analysis of the
architecture, of the circulation and the material finds in this ing of the comlex, ill
mae ossible at the end of the roject a alidation of this second hyothesis, hich
e consider at this oint to be the most ell-founded.

We ill add finally that e are today inclined to reject definitely the conneciton
sggested by Bibby (ibid.:181) beteen this discoery and the "Bahraini" eisode of
the legend of Gilgamesh here the Mesootamian hero found himself robbed of the
""P١a٨١" of youth by a serent. Our argument ill soon be deeloed elsehere e
ill simly emhasie here that it is almost tenty centuries hich searate the
famous Mesootamian legend and the "snae-bols' from Oal'at al-Bahrain
furthermore other directions of research exist, on the same site: one of the
medio-Babylonian cuneiform tablet yielded by the "assite arehouse' next to our
excaaiton maes mention of the Sumerian snae-god Mus (ossibly in connection
ith a temle) (Andre 1989: 12) this ould seem to be eidence infinitely more
determinatie in the interretation of our discoery than the traditional and highly
contested identificaiton of the legendary "Pant' ith the earl oyster from the Gulf
aters.

Pesrecties

hTe ne roject deoted to this one of the site of Oal'at al-Barhain has not yet
totally resoled the stratigrahical and chronological roblems osed, but e may say
that reliminary ansers, aritcularly arcihtecutral, hae already been found to
certain quesitons ihch e formulated hen the roject began in 1989, hTe to years
ahead ill see the outcome of the field inestigaiton the concenrtaiton ill be on the
aLte iDlmun hase and on those hich recede i.t We hoe at the end of the to
years to be able not olny to clarify hether the ihstorical Ueri could hae in fact
biult, restored or simly non the arcihtecutral comlex atrtibuted to him, but also
to leamr hat ufnciton he ihmself, ihs redecessors or ihs successors gae to ihts
outstanding construction, if they are its creators.

We ill add that numerous asecst of these ife years of research hae not been
aten u in ihts reort, aritcularly those concerning hte eniromnental sutdy, based
on geomorholog‫ﻫ‬, sedimentology, archaeooology and archaeoboatny, hich ill be
idely deeloed in ufutre camaigns. Eidenlty, the conrtibuiton of these
discilines to Oal'at allos us to setch a reliminary image of the eniromnent of
hte men ho cosnrtucted the buildings ihch e are excaating. But e ish
aritcularly to sutdy the relationshi of thsee men ith ihts original enriomnent
beteen sea and desert, itihn hich Barhain is a higlhy faoured 2one: tihs sutdy
should be enisaged not olny in terms of adatation of hte former to the latter
(agricultural, food, and racihtecutral strategise), but also of assimilation, underscoring
the aciton hich these oulaiton in return exercised on their on enironment. hTe

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