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<< Our Photo Pages >> Dilmun Monuments and Settlement - Ancient Village or Settlement in Bahrain

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 07 June 2013  Page Views: 11464

Multi-periodSite Name: Dilmun Monuments and Settlement Alternative Name: Saar settlement, Saar Heritage Park, Saar Burial Mounds, Honeycomb
Country: Bahrain
NOTE: This site is 2.607 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
 Nearest Village: Saar
Latitude: 26.179808N  Longitude: 50.490844E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2

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Dilmun Monuments and Settlement
Dilmun Monuments and Settlement submitted by Creative Commons : Remains of Saar temple, a temple dating to the Dilmun era of Bahrain's history. Creative Commons Image Author: Rapid Travel Chai Site in Bahrain (Vote or comment on this photo)
The following monuments are located with this area: Early Dilmun town, South Burial Complex (the "Honeycomb" complex), North Burial Complex,Late Dilmun temple and various single burial mounds

These sites and monuments are promoted as the Saar Heritage Park.

* Early Dilmun town

The Dilmun Town covers an area of 2.25 hectares. The main characteristics of the town are: a wide street with subsidiary alleyways running off approximately at right angles; a temple on the highest point; housing blocks sometimes arranged around an open square; and two-and three roomed houses with regular suites of domestic installations. The buildings are remarkably well-preserved, with walls standing over 3m high in places and domestic ovens and hearths intact. The settlement is the only one on Bahrain to have been excavated extensively and visitors are afforded a unique glimpse of daily life in Bahrain 4,000 years ago.

* South Burial Complex

The so-called 'Honeycomb Cemetery-lies less than half-a-kilometre to the south of the Dilmun town. Here, there is a large number of interconnecting graves. Each one consisted of a rectangular chamber, usually enclosed by an arc of outer walling tacked on to the side of earlier cells, so that graves multiply outwards from the original single cell at the center. It is a type of burial unique to Bahrain. The cemetery has been excavated in its entirety.

* North Burial Complex

The Northern Burial Complex is located on the eastern edge of the limestone ridge and covers an approximate area of lOOx6Om. It is only a few metres away from the Southern Burial Complex, and perhaps it is merely an extension. It was found by Bahraini archaeologists who exposed the tops of many of the graves but did not actually open them. A sample of ten graves was excavated by the London-Bahrain Expedition in 1991, but otherwise the cemetery remains unexplored. The following comments should, therefore, be considered provisional .

The cemetery seems to be another of the 'honeycomb' type. The graves again interlock with one another and are built in the same fashion: a stone-built tomb capped with large stones and surrounded by an arc of stone wall. Along the eastern edge of the cemetery there appears to be an area reserved for child burials, while along the northern limit there are several examples of 'stand-alone' burial mounds.

The ten excavated graves produced few 'surprises. All were robbed and contained very little human bone. In fact, on closer inspection it could be seen that the entire cemetery had been robbed systematically. Most graves had a capstone missing, while holes in the outer waffs of others showed where the robbers had burrowed through into the neighbouring burial. This suggests that the robbers knew where to go and that the grave robbing occurred quite soon after the construction of the graves.

The few finds recovered show that at least the excavated graves are contemporary with the settlement and with the Southern Burial Complex.


* Late Dilmun temple

Lies in the SW comer of the northern Burial Complex. It is a rectangular building with low stone walls, constructed directly on top of some Early Dilmun graves. Finds by the Bahraini team who excavated the building suggest it dates to the 5/6hcenturies AD. It is the only building of this date to have been found on Bahrain.


* Single Burial mounds

Single Burial mounds are still preserved along the western edge of the proposed heritage park and north of the Northern Burial Complex. A single tomb was reconstructed to roof height by the London-Bahrain Archaeological Expedition in 1992. It provides the only opportunity for visitors to Bahrain to see a Dilmun burial mound as it would have looked immediately after construction.

Source: Unesco (which includes some long/lat locations)

More about Saar Early Dilmun Village at About.com

Note: Bahrain digs unveil one of the oldest trading civilisations
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Nearby Images from Flickr
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Dilmun Burial Mounds
Dilmun Burial Mounds
Fish Person
DSC_7834-Pano
DSC_6658

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"Dilmun Monuments and Settlement" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Saar photos by Andy B on Friday, 07 June 2013
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/hqasem/4083763832/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kefah76/5497814868/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33331621@N02/8151030537/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hujairi/521107530/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hujairi/sets/72157600285917750/with/521107454/
[ Reply to This ]

Bahrain digs unveil one of the oldest trading civilisations by Andy B on Friday, 07 June 2013
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Excavations at an archaeological site in Bahrain are shedding light on one of the oldest trading civilisations.

Despite its antiquity, comparatively little is known about the advanced culture represented at Saar.

The site in Bahrain, thought to be the location of the enigmatic Dilmun civilisation, was recently discussed at a conference in Manama, the Gulf nation's capital, organised by the UN's educational, scientific and cultural body (Unesco).

The meeting was devoted to wide-ranging debate on heritage tourism; Bahrain is a Unesco regional headquarters and one of its key attractions is an abundance of ancient sites.

At Saar (named after the closest modern village), with the scorching sun rising ever higher in the sky, a Bahraini archaeologist patiently explained to a group of workers how to re-point a low wall in a state of near collapse.

This meticulous maintenance of the archaeological settlement marks a turning point in the way Bahraini specialists are dealing with the vast store of historical remains on the island.

According to Salman al-Mahari, the Bahraini archaeologist in charge, the Saar settlement divides into two: a residential zone and, at a small distance, the cemetery where the inhabitants buried their dead.

More at BBC News:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22596270
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Dilmun /Saar Settlement by Anonymous on Wednesday, 18 February 2009
This site is assigned above to Saudi Arabia -it is of course in Bahrain.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Dilmun /Saar Settlement by expatpete on Tuesday, 15 August 2006
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I was working in Bahrain in the late 70's and in the work camp library there was a book ( Discovering Dilmun )written by an archaeoligist who went through there in , I think, the 50"s.
With that in hand and with my local driver I set off to see what was there.
Found many robbed burial mounds - some of which had been reused as pottery kilns.
Also found some strange structures which were stone lined pits maybe 20- 30 ft deep and up to 100 yards long that were sunken date gardens below the level of the surrounding sands with obviously ancient man made water courses( tunnels ) opening out at the bottom only to disappear underground again when it reached the wall.
Facinating but pressure of work on the Saudi - Bahrainian causeway meant that I could only get away a couple of times to see the sights.
An interesting point made in the book was that the site, from finds they made ,was a trading post from the classical Greek period
Would dearly like to go back and have a proper "nose" around !!
[ Reply to This ]

Archaeologist on Saar pilgrimage by Anonymous on Friday, 23 June 2006
By GEOFFREY BEW

A SAUDI archaeologist will make his annual pilgrimage to watch the summer solstice at the 4,000-year-old Saar settlement on Wednesday.

Nabiel Al Shaikh has been a loyal observer of the phenomenon for the last nine years as he attempts to prove his theory that the Dilmun civilisation celebrated New Year on June 21 - the first day of summer.

He says an ancient temple at the settlement, which features an oddly positioned triangular corner room, was used as an astronomical device to measure the position of the sun, letting priests know it was the beginning of the New Year.

If correct, Mr Al Shaikh's hypothesis means the Dilmun civilisation would have been one of the first to base its calendar on the movement of the sun, making it different to other societies of the time such as Mesopotamia, Iran and Egypt.

But the expert has received little support for his theory as the sun no longer sets over the corner of the temple and is offset by around 10 degrees.

However, he argues this can be explained by the natural movement of soft sand beneath the settlement, which stands on raised ground.

Source:
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=146600&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29091
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