Anna Hilton – författare

The end of the 3rd millennium was a time of significant transformation in Southeast Arabia (the United Arab Emirates and Northern Oman). The cultural homogeneity of the preceding Early Bronze Age, Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700–2000 BC) came to an end and gave way to the Middle Bronze Age, Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BC). Settlements changed, and possibly began to decline in size and number; the economy changed for many; and the important trade in copper ore seems to have declined. In addition, there was a marked change in funerary practices as new types of tombs appeared – both collective and individual burials. All of this took place within the context of a climatic shift that led to a decline in rainfall across many parts of the region. Much of the countryside of Southeastern Iran was abandoned and the urban period of the Indus Valley was weakening. In the midst of this turmoil, the limited agricultural plains of Northern Ras al-Khaimah appear to have developed into an island where there was greater continuity than elsewhere. This book reports on the excavation of a number of monumental collective tombs that were built there and used through the early part of the 2nd millennium. The way that they were constructed and used as well as the burial goods that they contain throw light on the population of this area, and give some indication of how and why it was that life continued in this small pocket in a way that was different way to surrounding regions.

Excavations carried out by the Danish Moesgaard Museum on the island of Failaka in Kuwait in 1958-1963 produced a large collection of stone vessel fragments which have ever since puzzled scholars. The settlements excavated on Failaka, Tell F3 and Tell F6, belong to the 2nd millennium BC, but stone vessels of Serie Ancienne and Umm an-Nar styles of the 3rd millennium BC are well represented in the Failaka collection. Besides vessels of Wadi Suq and Late Bronze Age styles there is a significant group of figurative decorated stone vessels in a style completely unknown from anywhere else in the region, which may throw light on the mid 2nd millennium Dark Age in South Mesopotamia. The Failaka stone vessel collection is presented in all its details, and the significance of the many different vessel styles is discussed in the context of recent developments in our understanding of Arabian Gulf archaeology.

In the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC, the Arabian Gulf was an important waterway linking the large cities and states of Mesopotamia and Iran with Southeast Arabia and the Indus Valley. Trade along the Lower Sea, as the Gulf was named, demanded supporting stations, and civilizations grew and declined with the fortunes of this trade. In the 1950s, Danish investigations along the southern shores of the Gulf discovered remains of two of these ancient civilazations, Dilmun and Makkan (Bibby 1969). Survey and excavation in Kuwait beginning in 1958 revealed that the upper Gulf was an important part of Dilmun in the early 2nd millennium. Both before, during and after the flourishing of the Dilmun civilization the island of Failaka located off the Kuwait mainland formed an important role in several Near Eastern trade networks with Mesopotamia as the dominant partner.