These globular jars are a distinctive feature of Dilmunite culture.
Named after the temple where it was first identified, Barbar Ware is the defining type of pottery found in City II of Qal’at al-Bahrain. It also goes by the name “Ridged Ware” after the subtle horizontal grooves cut into the sides of the pot, spaced approximately one inch apart. These globular-shaped pots are a unique and easily identifiable product of Dilmunite culture. The fluting is not actually horizontal but spiral such as may be produced by slowly turning and cutting on a wheel.
The pots are most often made from red or buff colored clay with a short neck and globular body. The horizontal ridges that decorate the sides of these pots make them easily recognizable.
City I
As you may recall from our previous entry, Bibby excavated an extensive area next to the gate in the northeast corner of City II. Having opened up this area, he decided to go deeper and see if could find the earliest levels of the city. Below City II he began to encounter a different type of pottery, decorated with applied ropework—twisted strings of clay were impressed onto the surface of the vessel—which Bibby referred to as Chain Ridge Ware. This pottery was the most characteristic product of City I. It shares with Barbar Ware the same globular shape, but the applied ropework of Chain Ridge Ware degenerates into the horizontal fluting of Barbar Ware.
This pottery was the distinctive type found in Stratum I of Qal’at al-Bahrain.
The strata of Qala’at al-Bahrain. City I-II belong to the Early Bronze and probably the first part of Middle Bronze .
Failaka
In 1958 Bibby and Glob received permission from the emir of Kuwait to conduct an archaeological survey of Failaka. As you may recall, this island was named Ikaros in classical sources where it is also described as being heavily forested. Although not very big—it is a crescent-shaped island measuring 6 miles by 3 miles—Failaka once occupied a strategic position in the mouth of the Euphrates until that river moved and cut a new channel 20 miles east of Failaka. But in ancient times all sea freight entering and exiting the Euphrates would have passed by Failaka. Bibby and Glob therefore expected to find a Mesopotamian fort or city on the island. What they found instead were large quantities of Barbar pottery.
Then slowly the shock began to register. This we had not expected. We were over two hundred and fifty miles from Bahrain, and in fact a hundred miles closer to Ur than to Bahrain. We had expected Mesopotamian influence, perhaps even Mesopotamian colonization, in Kuwait; we had not expected Bahrain influence, or Bahrain colonization. Yet if the ‘Barbar culture’ was the material manifestation of Dilmun, then Failaka too was part of Dilmun. In that case Dilmun was a lot bigger than we had dreamed. The distance from Bahrain to Failaka was the distance from Eridu, the southernmost city of Babylonia, to Eshnunna [Tell Asmar], its northernmost city. In geographical extent, then, Dilmun could measure up to Babylonia itself.1Bibby 1984, 223-224
In addition to Barbar Ware, excavations on the island produced a large number of Dilmun stamp seals. These discoveries prove that Dilmun at its height encompassed not just Bahrain and Tarout, but all of the territory along the eastern coast of Arabia, right up to the mouth of Euphrates.
Bibby, Geoffrey.
Looking for Dilmun.
Great Britain: Penguin, 1984.