Page 100 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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approximately 10 km south of the northernmost ’Ubaid site, 117, at Diraz. Other
evidence for an 'Ubaid period occupation must be inferred from the associated flint
assemblages described by Masry (1974) and Roaf (1976). This evidence is not
strictly indicative of the 'Ubaid time range, as Masry has dated the prepottery
levels at 'Ain Qannas to ca. 5000 B.C. On Bahrain, however, the close spatial
arrangement of identified Late 'Ubaid sites and surface sites with only Group D
flint assemblages makes a temporal association more certain. Thus, there is a
suggestion that the Late 'Ubaid occupation of Bahrain was extensive and spread
from the north coast of the island near Diraz a distance of 30 km southward to the
vicinity of Ras al-Jazayir.

TTie subsistence and land use patterns are not clear for this period. Roafs
excavation at al-Markh verifies a pastoral pattern of sheep and goat herding and a
coastal maritime fishing strategy, but this economy may have been related only to
this particular portion of the island. Other subsistence strategies may have been
used in other parts of the island. Adams's (Adams et al. 1977) observations for
eastern Arabian 'Ubaid sites may apply here. He and his coworkers suggest that
'Ubaid settlement was more or less permanent, but occurred only in widely
scattered locations.
TTie evidence at hand indicates that the north and west coasts of Bahrain
were occupied during the Late 'Ubaid interval, ca. 3900-3500 B.C. Whether an
earlier 'Ubaid occupation took place on Bahrain as it did in eastern Arabia is still
unclear. Given the present state of our knowledge, it is possible that Late 'Ubaid
occupations took place only along the southwest coast, although the flint
assemblages recovered may reflect upon the entire 'Ubaid range.
With regard to land use, and given the record of the 'Ubaid period in
Mesopotamia, the 'Ubaid groups of Bahrain probably practiced a diverse subsistence
pattern characterized by cultivation, but with pastoralism and fishing as subsidiary
economic pursuits. Tlie evidence for pastoralism and fishing along the southwest
coast of the island may represent areas peripheral to cultivated zones farther to
the north. Such an interpretation is suggested by modern land use patterns which
show a progressive decrease in cultivation away from the north coast of the island.