Page 93 - DILMUN 12

Few mounds, apart from occasional rescue digs, were excavated during the following
Danish campaigns, with one exception and that was partly a rescue operation: in the tumulus
field south of Ali bulldozers were making serious inroads, and during the 1962-63 campaign it
was decided to examine as many as possible before they disappeared. This was an extensive
and planned project comprising some 40 mounds. But before we turn to these let us finish this
recapitulation.

In 1959-60 four mounds south of the Budaiya road and two near Saar were excavated and
a rescue dig was done on a mound north of the Budaia road at the turnoff for the Portuguese
Fort. These seven graves belong to the Iron age and have not yet been published. A rescue
operation was also undertaken in 1959 at Buri where a bulldozer had opened a mound
containing at least three stone graves. Only one was left for examination, with a skeleton in
flexed position and a red ridged Barbar vessel. A similar mound at Umm Jidr was opened 1965
by amaturs and finished by the Danish team. Here too was a skeleton in situ — flexed position
— while the accompanying vessel, found in an alcove, was a red “grave-vessel” with round
base and ribbed neck. These two graves arc mentioned in a brief note in the yearbook Kuml.
During the winter of 1961-62 two of the large mounds at Ali were examined as a sort of rescue
dig, since bulldozers had started quarrying around their edges. They were only partly exca­
vated, but in both of them tunnels by previous disturbers were located. In one of these two
painted goblets and three small bowls had been left behind. The operation has been briefly
mentioned in Kuml.

In the 1960s amateurs were very active in the mound fields. I shall mention only the work
of two of them — the opening of nearly 50 mounds from several different mound fields —
because they have been published with descriptions, measurements and grave goods by
Elizabeth During Caspers. In 1979 a group of French archaeologists, S.Cleuziou, P.Lombard
and J.-F.Salles excavated 5 “Barbar” mounds at Umm Jidr, and these too have been pub­
lished. Finally there is the large project started 1977 by Bahrain’s Department of Antiquities
on the Saar burial field, one of the most extensive on the island. The causeway from Saudi
Arabia to Bahrain that looked like a disaster for the burial mounds may have contributed
immensely to their study. Many hundred have been carefully excavated, and the first report
has already been published by one of the excavators, Moawiyah Ibrahim.

And now to the mound field south of Ali: two areas, about 1 km apart, were chosen, the
two excavated groups numbering 41 mounds. One group was located 3-400 meters southeast
of the southernmost of the large Ali mounds. Of the 19 mounds excavated here a few had
already been partly.removed, while the rest were chosen because they appeared intact in an
otherwise badly disturbed area. Except for maybe one or two they had, however, been broken
into, possibly in prehistoric times, and at least partly plundered. The mounds were rather
low, less than 2 m high, most of them in fact less than 1,50 m, but with a large diameter,
generally about 10 m but several of them considerably more, up to nearly 20 m. The grave
chambers covered by the sand and gravel were as a general rule built of large roughly cut
blocks in 3-6 courses with smaller stones in between to tighten the walls. Most of the chambers
were over 2 m long, never under 1,50 m, and many were easily 1 m long and 1 m high. The
orientation was approximately east-west with entrance, if any, in the west end. All the
chambers except one had alcoves, generally one or two at the east end, but in one case there
were no less tharyl side chambers, 2 at each end. They may have been used for gifts or
provisions, but only in two of them was a pot found left. Large capstones roofed the chamber,
smaller ones the alcoves. The floor was on the limestone rock, though never dug into it, and
fine sand or gravel had been scattered over it. In the chamber with 4 alcoves both floor and
walls had been plastered. A ringwall at the foot of the mound was located in only one case
but I shall return to this question.

12