Page 102 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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the southwest coast) to the more common pottery forms of the Barbar I and Barbar
II assemblages at Qala'at al-Bahrain. A total range of occupation from 2300 to
1800 B.C. is possible for sites 78 and 79, but the majority of sites belong to the
Barbar I through Barbar II phases, ca. 2200 to 1800 B.C. Only seven of the total
can be included within the Barbar I phase, whereas sixteen can be attributed to the
Barbar n phase. Tombs have yielded similar evidence. Of the eight tumuli fields
investigated by previous workers, only two yielded definite Barbar I materials. All
eight contained Barbar n pottery.
As a composite, the Barbar period occupation sites and tombs present a
more dense array of settlement than is evident for the Late 'Ubaid. Indeed, Barbar
period sites extend some 30 km south along the west coast of Bahrain and reoccupy
some of the same areas thought to date to the 'Ubaid period. Historical references
provide additional clues to the land use and subsistence base of this time range.
The Sumerian paradise myths point to the presence of irrigation canals and gardens
in Dilmun, and Kramer (1963) notes that Dilmun was both a place and a city. Here,
we can tentatively see the island of Bahrain with a varied array of villages
subsidiary to a prominent central place, Qala'at al-Bahrain.
Based upon the geological and hydrological biases to settlement along the
north and west coasts of Bahrain, it is reasonable to suggest that the Barbar period

villages experienced similar restraints, Like the modern population-distance
relationship shown in Figure 2, the Barbar period population was probably more
dense on the north coast of the island than along the southwest coastal plain. TTiis
same relationship is indicated by the location of tomb fields. The greatest number
of tombs lies on the northern slopes of the central dome, and the number decreases
with distance to the south. Figure 11, for example, shows four distinct clusters of
tombs along the western slopes of the dome south of Ali. Tlie distance between
each adjacent tomb field is 0.6 km, 0.8 km, 1.2 km, and 3.5 km, which indicates an
increase in the interval between tumuli fields with distance away from the largest
field at Ali—a potential reflection on contemporary population distribution. A
discrete clustering of tombs relates to particular groups of contemporary
settlements. The distance relationship between clusters of tombs provides