Page 64 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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In the late third millennium, the greatest unity of ceramic forms relates
with Umm an-Nar tombs of the Trucial Coast and interior Oman. Oman is
invariably associated with copper (see Tosi 1975), which implies some connection
with Magan. It is certainly suggestive to see the Umm an-Nar ceramic assemblage
virtually disappear from the Bahrain sequence at the beginning of what is
considered to be the Isin-Larsa period and to see an apparent synchronous decline
of Magan as an entity in the historic texts.
By the Isin-Larsa period, Bahrain became the center of a politically
unified region encompassing the east coast of Arabia, Failaka Island, and Bahrain.
Ceramic parallels identify continued contact with Oman. Dilmun dealt in copper.
This trade never ceased, but appeared to change hands. Control of the copper
trade between Ur and Dilmun by Dilmun merchants has been discussed by
Oppenheim (1954), who saw Dilmun as a ’’market place.” The presence of Persian
Gulf seals with Indus script and an Indus standard of measure points to a Late
Harappan connection with Bahrain. Persian Gulf seals at opposite ends of the
spectrum of trade (i.e., Ur and Lothal) suggest that Dilmun was a pivotal point in
the trade network during Isin-Larsa times.
Merchants centered in Bahrain capitalized on their position in the gulf and
perhaps carried cargoes in their own merchant fleet. The nearness of the Barbar n
settlement on Failaka Island to Ur does not suggest long distance transport by sea
using Mesopotamian vessels. TTiis may be the connection between the differences
in the size and number of vessels recorded in the Ur texts as mentioned by
Oppenheim. A higher proportion of smaller capacity vessels during the Isin-Larsa
dynasties may indicate that only short distances were being covered by these
vessels while the major tonnages of copper were carried to Failaka on larger
vessels belonging to a foreign power. The Barbar n settlement on Failaka suggests
that Mesopotamian imports were shipped directly to the threshold of the consumer
for later, short-distance transshipment by smaller craft.
As yet there are insufficient data to do more than suggest that
Dilmun-based ships may have linked the Indus and Oman with Bahrain. Rather than
being a passive, convenient, neutral point for trade to take place, it would appear

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