EXTREMELY rare archaeological artefacts dating back to the second century BC have been unearthed in the kingdom by a Bahraini excavation team.
The detailed pottery pieces, one of which features a curly-haired child, were dug out from a site around 600m away from Bahrain Fort in Karbabad.
Preliminary details revealed that they were 2,200 years old.
A team from the Bahrain Authorities for Culture and Antiquities (Baca) made the incredible discovery last week.
“Both artefacts are made out of clay, are identical and represent a female head – of a young girl with curly hair – placed on top of a vase,” Baca antiquities and museums director Dr Salman Al Mahari told the GDN.
Offerings
“These pieces are usually found in public buildings or private dwellings and are sometimes placed in graves as offerings or for the after-life.
“The upper pot was used to place charcoal and burn incense and it has a conical base that supports the burners.”
Dr Al Mahari told the GDN that the rare pieces – one of which is intact – date back to the early stages of the Tylos Era.
He said that similar artefacts were found in the 1980s in the Hellenistic Fortress – defence structures constructed during the ancient Greek civilisation – in the island of Failaka in Kuwait.
“During our excavation, which commenced a month ago, we found several shallow graves which were damaged or empty, but one grave was completely sealed by its capstone,” he said.
Beauty
“We found these two unique and rare pieces that were never seen in Bahrain before, this is an extraordinary discovery.
“Excavation efforts are still continuing and more research will be conducted to determine further details about the site, graves and artefacts.
“One of the pieces was intact and the details are very realistic as you can see the young girl’s curly hair, cheeks and venus rings. The artist who created these brought out the beauty of the young girl.”
The details of the young girl’s face were intact for 2,200 years
He also added that pottery bowls were also found in some of the graves.
Dr Al Mahari said the team will continue its effort to uncover more graves and archaeological artefacts dating back to the same era.
“It is very rare to find artefacts dating back to the early Tylos Era,” he said.
“We will conduct further studies and comparative analysis to gather additional data about the pieces we found.”
The GDN reported in September that an ancient and rare skeleton was among the key archaeological findings discovered in Maqaba as part of an excavation expedition into a burial site dating back thousands of years.
The large archaeological hill is around four metres high covering an area of 58m by 48m and contains 20 burial sites, 16 graves and a first-of-its-kind sophisticated garden in addition to other artefacts used in burial ceremonies.
Archaeologist Mustafa Salman had said that two skeletons and two infant burial jars dated back to the Tylos Era (the first century) while five adult skeletons dated back to the Dilmun Era (around 1000 BC).
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