Flemming Højlund – författare

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.

The first archaeological surveys and excavations in the state of Qatar were carried out by Moesgaard Museum, Denmark, in 1956-1974. A volume on the Stone Age sites was released by JAS in 1967, and the present publication includes the remaining investigations. Of special interest are several graves with iron swords and arrows and camels and a contemporary settlement with pottery showing close relations to Bahrain and the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The first excavations at the early Islamic site of Murwab are presented, and the book is concluded with a full catalogue of the rock carvings from Jebel Jusasiyah.

The capital of ancient Dilmun, Qala’at al-Bahrain, the most important archaeological site in East Arabia, was excavated in 1954-1978 by a Danish expedition from Moesgaard Museum. The first two volumes were published in 1994 and 1997, dealing with the northern city wall, the Islamic fortress and the central monumental buildings. The third volume covers the remaining 13 excavations, presenting their architectures and stratigraphies. A detailed treatment of the finds is given, stamp seals, inscriptions, figurines, incense burners, human bones, pottery, etc., dating from the late 3rd millennium to the Islamic period.

Excavations in 1958-1963 of two tells on the island of Failaka in Kuwait, Tell F3 and Tell F6, uncovered a small Dilmun community from the second millennium BC. The results of these excavations have been presented in five monographs dealing with the stamp and cylinder seals (Kjærum 1983), the pottery (Højlund 1987), the architecture (Kjærum & Højlund 2013), the stone vessels (Hilton 2014), and the beads (Andersson 2022). The present monograph, the sixth and final, presents the remaining objects from these excavations, that is, copper weapons, tools and ornaments, crucibles, moulds and ingots, metal analyses (Weeks et al.), cuneiform inscriptions (Marchesi), miniature sculptures (Pittman & Mulder), and artefacts of stone (Hilton), pottery, glass (Andersson), bone, ivory, shell, gold, plaster, pearls, silver, iron and bitumen (Strehle). The concluding chapter gives an overview of the development of the Bronze Age settlement of Failaka.