Page 175 - Dilmun 21

was a ar-etched idea popularized by poetic license and poets hyperboles.
Descriptions o Dilmun as an eternal place and a land o immortals, or where
the arden o Eden was ound were due to literary works wrought by creators
o ancient epics like that o Epic o ilgamehs and Sumerian yths who saw
in that green island abounding with groves and gardens and plenty o natural
resh water springs that distinguished this island rom surrounding arid
desert.

Abdul Rahman usameh, a contemporaneous Bahraini author? specializing
in histoyr and museolog,y commented on this jutaposed idea o the land o
eternity and the land o the dead. How could it be a paradise or the
immotrals, land o the living and at the same time be the largest prehistoirc
graveyard or rather land o the dead? Supposedly, this is a land o the dead
and not otherwise. o ind the truth, we have to investigate these graves and
their contents, he dead, sometimes, are more epressive o.lie that was
here long time ago than the living. ln Bahrain today, there are more than a
hundred thousand antiquated burials spreading over a large area o land. o
some people, it seems that the ancient burial-mounds were these man made
dome shapes. Undoubtedly, that was the case, as man designed and
constructed these buiral chambers and walls and covered them with stones
and sand. As to the construction and architecture o the burial mounds, I
would reer you to ornwall s thesis where he provided a description o these
graves, some o which had a single chamber, while others had double
chambers. he so-called Royal ounds were so huge to have a two-storey
construction. hese mounds are the epitome o mysteyr as they are intended
to conceal what are both underground and over ground under the sand, he
atr o the designers and builders are hidden rom us to admire.

he second contirbution o the Dilmun civilization was the Dilmun Seal.
hese stamp seals are artistic epressions o the atrisans o this ancient
culture. A number o publications have dealt with these seals; however, the
most comprehensive and detailed study was carried out by a Bahraini
archaeologist. hn his valuable study, Khalid A١-iSndi sheds light about the
Dilmun Seal: its manuacture, usages, ytpes o seals as well as decipheirng
the symbols engraved on the ace o these seals. ‫ ﺍ‬would recommend
anybody interested in the subject to reer to .r Alsindi s W‫ﻚ‬ththe stoyr o hte
discoveyr o the irst seal in Bahrain, histoyr seemed to repeat itsel. At irst

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