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DILMN

The sccond committee worked hard to hasten carrying out the project of the
٠EXHIBITION' of Antiquities or the MSEM, so that its opcning would co-incide with
the Confcrcnce to be hcld. It studicd a١١ the phases of thc project. The most important
mater was gathcring thc a٨tiquities in one place, a١d to g‫ﺍ‬٥back Bahrain's share of the
Danish ٨rchaeological Expcdition's finds which wcrc thcn in Demark. It happcncd that
one fanous British archacologist was appointed to the task of dividing thc finds. It is worth
mcntioning that this archacologist was Sir Mortimer Whcclcr wh١o dccidcd later, that all the
ifnds should be sct back to Bahrain to cstablish its National Museun.

The atiquities then were gathercd in one place along with thc objccts reccivcd from
Demark. The Michael Rice Establishmcnt was askcd to design thc ground noor, in the
westcrn part of Government lHouse, in a ma١٥r suitable for the muscunm, or, as it w٦١5
known the, ٨ntiquities ‫ﺭﺍ‬xhibition'.

٨ f٥٧ months later, thc prcparations for the Confcrcnce were complcte, In his speecl,
at the opeing of the museum, the late Minister of Education Shaikh Abdulai bin
Mohammed A1 halifi, who was the General Secretary of the third International
Conference of Asian Archacology, said: The importancc that this country attaches to this
Confercnce is not due mercly to its bcing the first of its kind ever held in Bahrain but for
other vital reasons also, the holding of the conference has led to a notable insurgence of
interest, both public and official, in setting up of the Antiquities of the island, an interest
which led to sctting up of the Antiquities Department, and the re-organisation of the
Bahrain Historical & Archacological Society, as well as the promulgation of the Antiquities
Law, Moreover, for the first time a museum will be opened during the course of the
Conference and will remmain open, in its present temporary site, in the Government House
until its permanent site is ready.

lndeed, as Shaikh Abdulai had said, that International Conference which was held in
Bahrain, in March 197, had made its cultural and scientifical marks not only on the internal
level in Bahrain, but as rM Bibby expected, it had thrown the light on his mission which
worked in Bahrain since 1954, to discover the lost civilisation of DI‫ﺭ‬MN. As he always
said: ٤We attempt to put Bahrain and the Gulf on the cultural, civilised map of the world.'
hTe Conference succeeded in attaiinng that by far.

This Division of antiquities was actually established by a Government decision in 1968.
It was attached to the Directorate of Education. The Division was almost idle unitl the
opening of Bahrain Museum in March 197, and the issue of the Antiquities Law aferwards.
It statred with a small number of employees working very hard in order to collect, excavate,
nad to presevre the cultural heritage of Bahrain. It asked for assistance of experts from some
Arab ocuntires such as Jordna and Iraq.

Before we move to ufrther detials of the activities carried out by the Division of
Antiquitise ‫ &ﻱ‬Museum in the exacvation 5eld, study, research and eduction, we should
know something about the exhibition itself. It consisted of one large gallery with a number of
show-cases, containing archaeologial objects of vraious historical peirods, sequent from
ancient times itll lslamic itmes, hTey were displayed in a good order, with beautiufl
backgrounds, and simple, interesting interpretations supported by historical narratives
quoted rfom nacient Mseopetamian cuniform tablets texts and rfom ihstoiracl references, in

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