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Bahrain Museum Experience

By: Abdulrahman Mosameh

Bahrain National Museum Ministeyr of lnformation

I١ took more than cighty years, from when the first archacological site was discovered at the
end of the sixth decade of the previous century, until wc rcached the point of establishing the
first museum in Bahrain, on the fourth of March 197.

As the excavation of antiquities in Bahrain has a story, the ١useum in Bahrain has a
story too. It is a part of the story of the appearance of the need for care in preserving the
cultural heritage of Bahrain, displaying this in a good form for the public, performing
excavations and scientific researches, to uncover the historical facts.

The idea of establishing a museum emerged in 1954, when the Executive Committee of
Bahrain Historical ‫ ﻱ‬Archaeological Society met for the first time. It comprised a good
number of citicns and resident foreigners as well. They suggested the necessity of setting up
a museum to collect, up to present time the cultural heritage of Bahrain from ancient times.
They studied the dangers that threaten Bahrain's heritage, and laid down a plan to be
followed in order to reach the right target.

nfortunately that idea was froen for more than fifteen years. During that period, the
responsible people in the Directorate of Education at that time, tried to gain knowledge of
public reaction to setting up a museum in the country. They co-operated with the Danish
Archaeological Expedition in displaying some of their finds in a temporary exhibition in AI
Hidaya School in Muharraq in 1957. For several days the exhibition was veyr successful,
visited by many people, old and young, males and females.

The second step was in 1967 when the Government of Bahrain signed a cultural
agreement with NESCO. According to that agreement, the Government laid before
NESCO every possibility that this organisation could undertake in the way of education
and culture in general, and in the ifeld of preserving, collecting and protecting Bahrain's
heritage in particula.r

In that same year, and because of the tremendous activity in digging, for new
construciton and modernisation, antiquities were found in many places in Bahrain. People
started to talk about these ifnds and how they were in danger of being lost and scattered. hTe
press took up this subject also. The Directorate of Education was encouraged to adopt the
idea of collecting these antiquities in one place to protect them. It called on the Government

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