A SPECIAL archaeological exhibition, ‘From Tylos to Dilmun: An Archaeological Journey around the Kingdom of Bahrain’, featuring more than 70 pieces from the kingdom opened at the Louvre in Paris.
The inauguration at the Near Eastern Antiquities Department was attended by Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (Baca) president Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage chairperson Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa and Louvre Museum director Laurence de Cars, as well as representatives from UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and the French culture ministry.
“The study of Bahrain’s history, stretching back more than 4,000 years, has contributed to a clearer understanding of the history of the region, and work completed in the past few decades helps us better understand relations between ancient civilisations from the Indus Valley to Mesopotamia,” Shaikh Khalifa explained.
“This exhibition, with all its rare artefacts, tells the story of many civilisations that passed through Bahrain, including Dilmun and Tylos, and their commercial, political and cultural relations.”
Ms de Cars highlighted that the exhibition builds on strong cultural relations between the two countries, adding that the French excavations began at the Bahrain Fort site in the late 1970s, leading to long-term co-operation between the relevant institutions in Bahrain and France.
The exhibition marks the beginning of a five-year antiquities loan from Bahrain National Museum to the Louvre Museum. It builds on the historic visit of His Majesty King Hamad to Paris in 2019.
The chronology of the exhibition begins with the late Dilmun civilisation, dating back to about 2500 BC, describing the civilisation as a “repository for the Gulf region and a crossroads for seafarers wishing to trade.”
The exhibition also emphasises Bahrain’s fortified bays and its many freshwater springs scattered on land and sea, thus becoming supply points for trips between the civilisations of Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and Majan in Oman.
&uuid=(email))