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building which the Dnes have discovered at with 1 shotr ١ecl at the broad-cnd cding in ﺇ
the Bahrﺝin fort site and have classified as cities an out turncd triangular rim.
I ٠and lI. A lot of shells and ifsh boncs were
found, which suggcst that the pcople of Diraz 2. Glohular cooking pots, with short neck;
wcer vcyr kccn on fishing. It is possible that and slightly flaring rim, and finally carinatcd
thsee basins may have bee filled with ٦water shallow bowls. Mr. Bibby 'has claimcd tlat
and ١sed to keep fish frseh before cooking. in city I the pots rccovered bear only chain
There was no cvidencc of agriculture, save a ridgcs wich are characteristic of this pcriod,
few number of querns, rﺝbbing stones :and
stoarge pits, and it is not ccrtain that thcse while in city II the chain ridgcs have been
matcrials wcre used for this purpose, they abndoncd, and only the pot rccovercd show
might have serﺝedfor storing cxtra food. the pﺍain ridges.
T ﻥsunmnmaire briefly, Diraz yielded posi Unfortunately our knowledge of Barbar
tive tarcsc of a fishing village community way ware is still not complcte nd we are not yet
of life, although htcre is some indication that sure of its place of origin, but it sccnms likely
Dira people sitll depended on various dicts. that it may turn out to be of Bahraini origin,
Diar; also (as I mcntioned above) yiclded large so in view of this tendency towards local
quantiites of shells of many kinds in occupa specialisation, it is nccessayr to examine the
tion levels, wihch must have been eaten in areas adjoining Bahrain.
uncounted numbesr by people of that period.
Thsee have been found on sitse of the Barbar A qucstion which is not yct settled is the
horizon, although not in large quanitites, relationship of the Barbar assemblage to other
suggesting that climaitc conditions were veyr sites, particularly outside Bahrain. It has been
different from the present. The mai ﺝcollec stated that Barbar pottery has so far been
tions of pottery were from the housing areas traced from Bahrain and Tarut lsland of the
and dcbris There appeasr o have bcen a eastern shore of the Arabian peninsula to
slight retur ﺝto hte older tradition in potteyr Iailaka in Kuwait. The eastern connections are
producing from htis point. We must consider fewer, although the tradition of p٠intung
hte relationship betwcen hte Diraz and the pottery in geometric patterﺝs is to be found at
Barbar potteyr industry. a number of carly sites in Iran. There is no
close resemblance to the Barbar ware, but the
Diraz Potteyr si mostly wheel-finished, Iranian type٠ resemble p٠tterns found at٤ Um
made of clay containing some mile and temper an-Nar and Hili in (Abu-Dhabi).
ed with fine sand. Mare than half of the
p٠tsherds group showed outside surfacsce buri Generally, one can trace the whole Barbar
shed over a red slip. A few sherds with painted assemblage in the Arabian Gﺏlf and the
decoration might be in simple lined p٠tterns or neighbouring countries from Bahrain and the
eastern shore of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait (Failala)
oblique arrangements of blobbed liﺝes, Those to souther ﺝMesopotamia (Iraq) Unm-An-Nat
aer veyr siimlar to few sherds found ni Ciyt II (a small isand off the coast of Abu-Dhabi on
at Oal'at al-Baarhin. Circumstancse of fiirng the Oman peninsula, Bumpur (levels V-٧I) and
have caused colour cahngse in the core of clay, Tepe Yahya (Near Kerﺝan) level IVa, IVb,
wihhc vairse from iight red or reddsih brown with eastern Iran, the latter assigﺝed to the
to dark. Slip si veyr commonly used and wet last centurise of the third millenium, thsi also
nsooihtng aosl wsa employed. confirﺝed by the recent discovery at Shahi
hTe main shape٠ are: - Sokta east Baluchistan, and finally in the Indus
Vailey.
1. Lagre vessesl, shaped like an egg of red
caly and decorated wiht hozironatl ridgse. This ln conclusion, then, it can be statcd ' that
the Diraz site wsa occupied in the beginning of
hsa wto type٠,one in which the top of the pot the third millenium, and hardly later than 2500
wsa simply a round opening with nirs being B.C. but in trying to interpret the village of
thickened around the opeinng. The second Diraz we are left witchout any helpful inscrip
tions, and it needs further ecavation.
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