Arab. arch. epig. 1995: 6: 1 4 Printed in Denmark , AII rights reserved

Copyright 0 Munksgaard 1995

Arabian archaeology and epigraphy

ISSN 0905-7196

A seal in the collections of the National Museum, Bahrain HARRIET CRAWFORD AND KHALID AL SINDI Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK and National Museum, Ministry of Information, State of Bahrain

This article describes a Murghab seal amulet recently identified in the collec- tions of the National Museum of Bahrain and discusses some of the other evi- dence for contact between Central Asia and the Gulf in the early second millen- nium.

A classic two-sided Murghab seal amulet has recently been identified in the collec- tions of the National Museum of Bahrain and provides another piece of evidence which confirms the wide-ranging contacts of the Dilmun civilization. The bi-facial stone seal, or amulet, is square with den- ticulated edges and has two perforations through each of two opposing corners. This would indicate that is was strung to form a diamond shape rather than a square. One side (Fig. 1) shows a pair of ?wolves, one above the other, while the second (Fig. 2) shows a winged lion with gaping jaws (1). The seal came from an unpublished Dilmun period grave of the early secimd millennium BC from the mound field at Hamad Town in the centre of the island.

The closest parallels for this seal are to be found in Central Asia, in the areas which later became known as Margiana and Bactria. The shape can be exactly matched by a metal seal from the site of Dashly in northern Afghanistan (2), and another made of white calcareous stone is published in Ligabue ed ND (3). More re-

cently, Sarianidi has reported several seals in a dark soapstone and one made of a red- dish stone from the site of south Gonur in Turkmenistan (4). The motif of the winged lion is very popular on these seal amulets and can be seen on several examples from Dashly and from Gonur (5), but the pair of wolves on the other face is, apparently, unique. Pairs of other animals, placed head to tail above each other, are known in the repertoire of the Murghab seal cutters. Seals in this style are generally dated to the Namazga V/VI periods and are part of what has been called the Bactrian/Marg- iana Archaeological Complex or BMAC (6). Corrected C14 dates for the later part of this complex place it in the first half of the second millennium BC, the period during which Dilmun was at its most prosperous.

This seal is not alone in suggesting that contacts of some kind existed between Central Asia and the Gulf at this period, and even a little earlier. A remarkable ivory comb found in a large Umm-an-Nar grave at Abraq, and dated by the excavator to the end of the third millennium, is probably of

2

A SEAL IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BAHRAIN

Fig. 1

Fig. 2 and 2. For details, see text.

Bactrian origin (7). Slightly later in date, a badly damaged bi-facial seal from Failaka (8) is almost certainly another Murghab seal-amulet. In addition, the motif of the animal wheel found on Dilmun seals from Failaka, Barbar and Saar and identified by Porada as having links with Anatolia, would also seem to be related to splendid wheeling designs from Central Asia, and, indeed from the Indus valley (9).

Other prestige artefacts also suggest con- tact with this area. The objects from level IIA of the Barbar temple, which Bibby re- ferred to as a foundation deposit, are plainly foreign to the Dilmun tradition, and it has already been suggested that the famous bull’s head can be compared to one from Altyn Tepe in Turkmenistan which is closer to it in date than the Mesopotamian parallels usually cited (10). Also from level IIA comes what used to be referred to as a votive statue in the Sumerian style, but which is more accurately compared to the anthropomorphic mirror handles from Bac-

Fig. 2

tria, apparently again dated to the begin- ning of the second millennium (11). Al- though the Barbar piece has a number of features in common with these Bactrian examples, there are also real differences. For example, the feet of the figure orginally held the face of the mirror, while in Bactria it is usually supported by the raised arms of the human figure (12).

The figure of a long-necked bird cast in copper from the same level of the Barbar temple, although much larger, can perhaps also be compared to figures of birds found occasionally decorating spatulae used with the so-called cosmetic flasks throughout Bactria and Eastern Iran. A group of these figures in copper from robbed tombs in Bactria has been published by Pottier and includes a somewhat comparable, though smaller, figure (13).

Although no metal cosmetic flasks have yet been found in the Gulf, there is a soft- stone flask with a rectangular base and a cylindrical neck from Hili which is con-

2

H. CRAWFORD AND K. AL SINDI

sidered to be of Central Asian type (14). The fine cylindrical alabaster vessels from the Barbar temple are also considered to be of foreign origin, and it has been suggested that they may have come from Egypt (15). However, close parallels can again be cited from Central Asia where the manufacture of such vessels is attested from Namazga IV levels onwards at Altyn Tepe (16). Amiet sees both these vessels, and the cos- metic flasks, as belonging to a cultural complex which includes Susiana, Luristan, and eastern Iran (17).

Given Dilmun’s commercial importance in the first quarter of the second millen- nium, it is unsurprising that a few pres- tige goods should travel such long dis- tances. Lapis lazuli, for example, travelled a comparable distance from an adjacent region. Its movements are relatively well documented and it can be shown that at least two routes linked the mines in Ba- dakshan with Mesopotamia. The links be- tween the Murghab and Dilmun may also have been along this well-established road. One route was down the Indus valley, by sea to the Gulf, and onwards, while two land routes across Iran also ap- pear to have been used. One ran north of the central desert through sites such as Tepe Hissar. The other, more relevant to this discussion, ran east of the desert and then west along the Bampur valley and so to Susa. In addition, Amiet has conclus- ively demonstrated both the close contacts between southern Iran and Central Asia, and the links between Susa and Dilmun (18). The seal/amulets could have trav- elled by land or sea, through the Indus valley, or via Susa. It is not necessary to suggest that merchants from Dilmun, or from Bactria, travelled such enormous dis- tances. Attractive, precious, and portable objects like the seal amulets could have passed from hand to hand over long dis- tances, sometimes as part of larger com-

mercial transactions, or as gifts between rulers or private individuals. Such a mechanism may well explain the presence in a mound at Hamad Town of the fine seal amulet which is described in this ar- ticle.

Catalogue details Square bi-facial seal, 1.87X 1.87X0.65 cm. Glazed brownish stone. Two holes for sus- pension through each of two diagonally opposed corners.

Design: Side 1. (Fig. 1) Two crouching ?wolves, one above the other, the upper one faces left, the lower one right, separ- ated by a horizontal line. Each animal has an unidentified motif in the field below his chin.

Side 2. (Fig. 2) Leaping winged lion with wide open jaws and tail curled up over his rump. Unidentified motif, ? an insect or plant ? below his front legs, crescent in field behind neck.

Location: Mound 107, Area BS2. Hamad Town.

Museum number: 8590.

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the Director of the National Museum for permission to publish this seal and Marcus Wodburn for his excellent photographs.

References 1. For full catalogue entry, see above. 2. Sarianidi VI. Seal-amulets of the Murghab style.

In: Kohl P, ed. The Bronze Age civilization of Central Asia. New York M. E. Sharpe, 1981: 221-255.

3. Ligabue G, Salvatori S, ed. Bactria an ancient oasis civilization from the sands of Afganistan. Venice: Li- gabue study and research centre, ND: fig. 18.

4. Sarianidi V. Excavations at Southern Gonur. Iran XXXI: 1993: 34.

5. Sarianidi, Seal amulets: 250. 6. Hiebert FT & Lamberg-Karlovsky CC. Central

Asia and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. Iran XXX: 1992: 1-15.

3

A SEAL IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF BAHRAIN

7. Potts D. T. A new Bactrian find from southeastern Arabia. Antiquity 67: 1993: 591-596.

8. Kjaerum P, Failaka/Dilmun. The early second millen- nium settlements. vol. I. i. The stamp and cylinder seals. Aarhus: JASP VII. I, 1983: no. 335.

9. Crawford H. A note on the seals from the first season of excavation at Saar, Bahrain. Cambridge Journal of Archaelogy 1.2: 1991: 255-262.

10. Lombard P & Kervran M, eds. Bahrain National Museum. Archaeological collections I. Bahrain: Di- rectorate of Museums and Heritage, 1989: 30.

11. Bahrain National Museum: 31. 12. Pottier M-H. Materiel funeraire de la Bactriane rnPri-

dionale de l’lige du bronze. Paris: Ed Recherche sur les Civilizations, Memoire 36, 1984: figs. 268-272.

13. Pottier: XXIV 170. 14. Ligabue & Salvatori, Bactria: 183. 15. Mortensen P. The Barbar temple: its chronology

and foreign relations reconsidered. In: a1 Khalifa

SH & Rice M, eds. Bahrain through the ages. London: KPI, 1986: 184.

16. Kohl PL. Central Asia. Palaeolithic beginnings to the Iron Age. Paris: Ed Recherche sur les Civilizations, Synthese no. 14: 1984: 113, pl. 8.

17. Amiet P. L’rige des tchanges inter-iraniens, 3,500- 1,700 BC. Paris: Notes et documents des muskes de France 11, 1986.

18. Amiet P. Susa and the Dilmun culture. In: a1 Khalifa SH & Rice M, eds. Bahrain through the ages. London: KPI, 1986: 262-268.

Address: Harriet Crawford Institute of Archaeology University College London 31, Gordon Square London WClH OPY U. K.

4