Page 93 - DILMUN 14

Kassites, with Kassite govcrnors installcd on the islnd, and decply influenccd by
Kassite culture on all lcvcls, down to the shapcs and wares of pottcery. ln th١e 13١h
century B.C. thc Kassite domination along the Gulf sccms to ccase, first at
Bahrain, thcn perhaps a little later along the East Arabian coast (Khor Island
and Faila) ٧ About half a century later, in 1158, nomadic or scmi-nomadic tribes
of the Sealand terminatc the Kassite rule of Babylon.

At Oal'at al-Bahrain there is now possibly after a bricf abandonnent of the
site evidence of a settlement of people some of whon still produce Kassite
pottery. But at the same time a heavily straw-tempered ind of pottery prevails,
perhaps representing the arrival of a new population element on the island. his
new type of pottery seems to have close affinities to straw-tenpered wares found on
the Arabian peninsula.

It may be relevant in this context to mention that Syria from the 12th century
B.C. was seriously disturbed by nomadic tribes. ln the 1Ith century B.C. the first
waves of Aramaean nomads reached Assyria and Babylonia, and during the
following centuries Mesopotamia was deeply affected by the unstable presence of
Aramaean, Chaldaean and Sutian tribes. here is at present no agreement as to the
origin of these tribes, A number of scholars, however, have argued an infiltration
by Aramaeans and Chaldaeans from the Arabian peninsula, presumably moving up
along the shores of the Arabian GuIt ٦.

Already in the 14th century the governor of Nippur receives a complaint from his
Kassite colleague in Diimun that the Ahlamu nomads ".. around me ... have
carried away the dates?'i٩. his could perhaps be envisaged as a prelude to much
more serious troubles to come from the Arabian nomads. We might furthermore
hypothesie that the Kassite domination in Bahrain in the 13th century B.C. was
brought to an end by nomadic tribes moving towards north along the East Arabian
coast. Some of these nomads may have settled on the island, and their occupation is
possibly reflected by the straw- tempered pottery found at Oal'at al-Bahrain.

By the elimination of Kassite domination in Bahrain and along the East Arabian
coast the economy and patterns of trade in the Gulf were disturbed to such an
extent that no major administrative buildings and no stamp or cylinder seals are
nown rfom Bahrain (or Failaa) for almost half a millennium. But in the late 8th
century B.C., after the stabiliation of the Assyrian emprie and its expansion
towards the Arabian Gulf, DilmunlBahrain appears again in the sources. his time
it is as a peripheral territoyr politically and economically lined to the central
Assyrian state - not closely lie those peoples who had to pay tares but
recognied as a countyr of its own with ings who, awed by the Assyiran militayr
power, paid tirbute to the Assyiran ings.

30