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OES
‫ﺇ‬. Ihe first and th١٥ third scctions (1 and III: in English) of this article wcre written by

?eder Mortcnsen, thc sccond section (II : in French) by Moique Kervran and Fredri
Iliebcr). hc authors wish to than Shaiha Hay ٨I halifa and Dr,. Daniel . Pots
for stiulating discussions and suggcstions relating to thc subjcct of the article.

2. ٥١٥BY ١957 : 128 ٢٤. and ١969: ١0٤١٢.

3. HOULUND .1986 ad 1987: 107-130 and 151-161.

‫ ﺩ‬Cf. cg. LOMB٨RD ei SALLES 1984: 137 ٠٢f, LOMBARD 1986, OAES 1986, and
SALLES 1986: 458٠460.

5 his review is compiled primarily on the basis of informations published or summaricd
by BIBBY 1969, BU7 1983: 117 f., HBULUND 1986: 217 ff., HOILUND ١987:
151-161, KESSLER 1983: 147 ٤٠٠ KRAUSS, LOMBARD and PO5 1983: 161 ff.,
LOMBARD 1986: 225 ٤., OAES 1986: 325 ٤٤., POS 1986: 169 ff., READE 1986:
325 f٤., and SALLES 1986: 445 tf., secondarily on personal informations indly
provided by Shaiha Haya A1 Khalifa (the graves), Poul Kjerum (the seals), and
Jesper Eidem (the cuneiform inscriptions).

5. A C14-date on carbonied date stones from the Kassite storage building indicates an
age of 3130 years ± 110 B.P. (K-827). Calibrated in accordance with the Clar
calibration curve it gives a date of1475 B.C., and after the Pearson curve a date of 1410
B.C. (HDULUND 1987: 161).

7. No seals belonging to the period between the 13th and the 8th century B.C. have as yet
been found in Bahrain. he first seals after the gap are the cylinders cut in a
Neo-Assyrian style, probably dating to the 8th century B.C. hese cylinders are
followed in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. by a large number of Neo-Babylonian stamp
seals (P. Kjerum, personal communication). his remarable absence of seals
corresponds to a similar lac of graves that with any certainty can be dated within the
critical span of time. But in the 8th-7th centuries B.C. burials with metal objects,
steatite, and alabaster of Neo-Assyrian and OmanilArabian affinities appear e.g. at the
cemeteires of Sir, Al-Hajjar and Ali East.
An important exception are perhaps the large buiral jars excavated by Jean-Francois
Salles at Janussan, mound IIIB (LOMBARD et SALLES 1984: 117-119 and Fig. 49.
See also below. Based on parallels rfom Babylon, Nippur and Ur, Salles dates the

Janussan jars to the late 7th or 6th centuyr B.C. But in fact the so-called "opfgraber"
and the "Doppeltopfgriber', composed of two large jars similar to those rfom
Janussan, seem to be in common use at Babylon from the 10th to the 4th centuyr B.C.,
and at ell al-Lahm they are supposed to cover a period rfom the late 2nd to the early
1st millennium B.C. (SROMMENGER 1964: 158 Abb. 1, and 166-168). he
Janussan buiral jars might therefore just as well be dated to a peirod anywhere between
the late 2nd millennium and the 4th centuyr B.C.

hese soundings were carried out by F. Hiebert, M. Kervran, A. Rougeulle and K.
al-Sindi.

Investigations conducted on Bahrain in 1981 by Professors R. Pasoff (Uinversite de
unis) and P. Sanlaville (Univesrite de Lyon).

BI‫ﻡ‬BY 1969: 352-35.3

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