Page 201 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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date and elevation agree well with calibrated radiocarbon dates and landforms
from Qatar (Taylor and Illing 1969), Saudi Arabia (al-Sayari and Zotl 1978), and the
southwest coast of Bahrain (Doornkamp, Brunsden, and Jones 1980).
Retreat of the sea from this mid third-millennium high stand was
relatively rapid as shown by a mixture of beach sands incorporated into the
overlying archeological deposits. These extend to about 2.75 m above high tide and
represent eolian sands derived from beach deposits exposed when the sea level fell.
TTiis is consistent with the mixture of eolian sands with the Barbar period
settlement sites at al-Wasmiyah (WSB) and near Diraz. At Qala’at al-Bahrain,
however, this eolian activity was prevalent in the Barbar I levels (ca. 2100 B.C.).
Dated beach deposits related to this high stand are given in Table 5.
Another suggestion for a formerly higher relative sea level stand is also
preserved at the Qala’at al-Bahrain. Wave-rounded potsherds of Kassite date are
found between 63 and 74 m from the present shoreline. These are found at about
1.25 m above high tide, but in an uncertain context. TTiey are overlain, however, by
Hellenistic and medieval Islamic occupation levels. Neo-Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian pottery was absent.
Many other causes can be suggested for the presence of wave worn
pottery. Such remains may have been refuse discarded on the nearby beach and
later used as construction materials. The absence of Neo-Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian occupation levels tentatively argues for a period when sea level
was somewhat higher than it is now. A postulated higher sea level may have
reworked Kassite deposits during the early first millennium B.C. Subsequent
retreat of the sea then allowed the northward spread of later settlements onto the
recently exposed intertidal zone. No similar period of high sea level is recorded
for the gulf.
Swamp encroachment in the Mesopotamian delta region has been
discussed by Adams and Nissen (1972) for the third millennium B.C., the late first
millennium B.C., and the late first and early second millennia A.D. In an earlier
paper on the Mesopotamian delta region (Larsen 1975), this information was used to
suggest a series of fluctuations in Late Holocene sea levels for the gulf. Higher