3,300-year-old faience mask found in Bahrain

A rare 3,300-year-old faience mask has been discovered at the Al-Hillah site in southern Bahrain. It was found in a grave containing the remains of two women and an infant from the Dilmun civilization, and is only the second one of its kind ever found in Bahrain.

The mask depicts a female face with a headband, necklace and pendant earrings inlaid with what are likely shell fragments set in bitumen. The wide, almond-shaped eyes, their outlines and eyebrows are also inlaid in bitumen. The ears are pierced with three holes in each. They likely originally contained rings.

The Dilmun civilization was located in Eastern Arabia on the Persian Gulf, covering present-day Bahrain, Kuwait and parts of Saudi Arabia. Dilmun controlled the Persian Gulf trade routes that connected Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley Civilization, and ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablets refer to Dilmun as an important trade partner.

Dilmun had a particularly close relationship with Ur. Texts record that Ur’s agricultural products would be sent to Dilmun for sale to the southern Arabian Peninsula, Africa and India. Merchants on both sides made rich profits, with Dilmun’s ships trading Ur’s crops abroad and returning with wood, copper, perfumes and pearls to sell for high prices in Ur’s markets.

Several faience female heads were found in excavations of the Giparku (priestess’ residence) at Ur. They date to the same period as the one found in the Dilmun grave, between the 14th and 12th c. B.C. One unusually large and finely inlaid example, now in Baghdad’s Iraq Museum, was found in the tomb of a high priestess of Nanna, god of the moon, and is believed to be a representation of the priestess rather than the deity with the wide eyes representing visionary prayer. These masks were probably originally attached to wooden statues, but other versions of these faience female figures appear to have been worn as pendants.

The Bahrain mask is currently undergoing research and conservation. It is such a rare discovery in the country that there’s been very little study of the faience figure and how it was used in Dilmun.

[Archaeologist Mashael al-Shamsi] added that the current excavations are focusing on soil layers dating to the Middle Dilmun period, as the team continues efforts to produce a comprehensive study shedding light on the details of these discoveries and their significance in understanding the cultural context of that era.

Other finds included rings made from marine shells, two sewing needles, a perforating tool, and a traditional applicator for kohl, all recovered through meticulous soil sieving at the same site.

It is worth noting that the Al-Hillah site was named after the village of “Hillat Al-Abd Al-Salih” and is considered one of the key locations for understanding the stages of development of the ancient Dilmun civilization, regarded as one of the most prominent civilizations in the history of the Arabian Gulf.

* This article was originally published here