Returning to Bahrain, remember how Bibby opened a large area in the northeastern part of Qala’at al-Bahrain. This is where he found the city gate and the Indus Valley cubic stone weights. These belonged to City II and therefore probably should be dated no earlier than the mid to late 3rd millennium BC. Below this level he found the distinctive Chain Ridge Ware pots of City I. What we failed to mention previously is that Bibby continued to dig in this area, all the way through the occupational levels of City I, until he reached what he thought was virgin soil. However, their brooms continued to pick up small sherds of pottery so Bibby decided to keep digging. Several feet further down, they encountered layers of farush, a type of conglomerate which forms at the edge of a reef that was (and still is) used as a building material, like limestone. Here is how Bibby describes what they found in the lowest strata of the tell:

Bibby packed this pottery into boxes and placed it in storage, where it remained for several years, untouched. Bibby and Glob and their team would go on to dig at other sites, most especially the tombs and settlement at Umm an-Nar. Later, when it came time to publish the material and Bibby had an opportunity to look through the pottery recovered from the earliest levels of City I at Qal’at al-Bahrain, he was struck by how similar some of this pottery was to that which was being found at Umm an-Nar.²Bibby 1984, 377-378 In fact, there were sherds that were identical. Bibby concluded that the tombs at Umm an-Nar and City I at Qala’at al-Bahrain were likely contemporary. He thought that both should date to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC.

Qala’at al Bahrain (Stratum I)

Umm an-Nar

Adapted from Bibby, Looking for Dilmun, p. 378.

Fine Grey Oman Ware

A considerable number of complete pots were recovered from the tombs at Umm an-Nar and Buraimi (Hili). The most distinctive of these, known as Fine Grey Oman Ware, are barrel shaped. Their thin walls were produced on a fast wheel. As the name suggests, they were made with grey clay, well-levigated to remove impurities, and decorated with geometric shapes or rows of animals painted onto the surface with black paint. Pottery of this type has also been found in Baluchistan (the westernmost province of Pakistan) and in south-eastern Iran.

Adapted from Bibby, Looking for Dilmun, pp. 318-319.

Fine Red Oman Ware

Another style of pot, native to Oman, took the form of a small globular vase, with flowing curves. The clay is of good quality, and well levigated, like the grey pottery described above, except the pots are fired red and decorated almost exclusively with geometric shapes in dark brown paint. Animals usually do not appear on this pottery, although Bibby points to one unique sherd he found which was decorated with a zebu, an Indian bull.

Adapted from Bibby, Looking for Dilmun, pp. 296.

Adapted from Bibby, Looking for Dilmun, p. 297.

Another pottery sherd discovered at Umm an-Nar impressed with a cylinder seal displays files of animals, a motif well known from seals of the Jemdet Nasr period but continuing into the Early Dynastic. In this case, the juxtaposition of animals, a rosette, eel, and rhomboid, are reminiscent of Intercultural-style chlorite vases. A similar seal displaying animals and rosettes was found in the Diyala which Collon dates to the latter half of the Early Dynastic period.³Seal #45 in Collon 1987, 22-23 These comparisons suggest a similar date for the pottery sherd from Umm an-Nar.

Adapted from Bibby, Looking for Dilmun, p. 380.