|
Steffen Terp Laursen, Moesgård Museum, Orientalsk Afdeling. |
|
The Oriental department - Moesgaard Museum and Bahrain Directorate for Culture & National Heritage collaborate on the mapping of the burial mounds of Bahrain on the basis of aerial photos from 1959. The use of historic maps makes it possible to also map the thousands of burial mounds that have vanished in the landscape in more resent years. The intention is to use the final map to investigate the archaeology of the Early Dilmun period by focusing research on the development of the burial mound cemeteries. The project is motivated by the unparalleled material culture record present in Bahrain’s burial mounds and its evident potential to shed new light on both the rise and the decline of the Early Dilmun kingdom. Steffen Terp Laursen The article is an appendix to Dr. Flemming Højlund´s most resent book: The Burial Mounds of Bahrain Social complexity in Early Dilmun – Jutland Archaeological Society vol.58
|
|
Mapping the burial mounds of Bahrain |
|
This aerial research project deals with reconstructive mapping of archaeological features an represents an example of how this can be accomplished by means of historic aerial photography data. Since the late nineteen century Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf has been legendary for the endless fields for burial mounds from the Bronze Age culture Dilmun. The burial mound was the primary factor which motivated Aarhus Professor P.V. Glob from Moesgaard Museum to instigate the famous expeditions to the Arabian Gulf. The Bahrain cemeteries which probably represent the largest concentration of burial mounds known to mankind are today threatened by development and land use. Regardless of the situation nobody has ever taken the time to produce a map of this amazing archaeological pheromone. |
|
Exploring the mounds fields in the days of the original expedition to the Arabian Gulf. |
|
This air photo from 1959 show the countless burial mounds as contour shadows cast by there distinct conical shape. |