Barbar Temple

The Barbar Temple is an archaeological site located in the village of Barbar, Bahrain, and considered to be part of the Dilmun culture. The most recent of the three Barbar temples was rediscovered by a Danish archaeological team in 1954. A further two temples were discovered on the site with the oldest dating back to 3000 BC. The temples were built of limestone blocks, believed to have been carved out from Jidda Island.

Barbar Temples
Barbar Temples
Location in Bahrain
Coordinates:

Contents

History

The three temples were built atop one another with the second built approximately 500 years later and the third added between 2100BC and 2000BC.[1][2] It’s thought that the temples were constructed to worship the god Enki, the god of wisdom and freshwater, and his wife Nankhur Sak (Ninhursag). The temple contains two altars and a natural water spring that is thought to have held spiritual significance for the worshipers. During the excavation of the site many tools, weapons, pottery and small pieces of gold were found which are now on display in the Bahrain National Museum. The most famous find was a bronze bulls head[3]

The site is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage[4]

Archaeology

The site was discovered by P.V. Glob in 1954. Excavations, by a Danish team led by Hellmuth Andersen and Peder Mortensen, began that year and extended until 1962.[5] Work at the site resumed in 2004.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ P Mortensen, 'On the Date of the Barbar Temple in Bahrain, Artibus Asiae, vol. 33, iss. 4, 1971
  2. ^ P. Mortensen, On the Date of the Barbar Temple, Dilmun, A Journal of Archaeology and History in Bahrain, vol. 6, pp. 4-9, 1974
  3. ^ Elisabeth C. L. During Caspers, The Bull's Head from Barbar Temple II, Bahrain A Contact with Early Dynastic Sumer, East and West, vol. 21, no. 3/4, pp. 217-223 1971
  4. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre - Barbar Temple
  5. ^ H. Helmuth Andersen and Flemming Hojlund, The Barbar Temples, Jutland Archaeological Society Publications, Aarhus University Press, 2003, ISBN 8788415279
  6. ^ [1] F Højlund, New excavations at the Barbar Temple, Bahrain, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, vol. 16, iss. 2, pp. 105-128, 2005

References

See also