tion of an indication mark of a technical nature
seems likely.
The excavations in 2004 did not produce any
clear-cut evidence for a subterranean pool chamber
outside the Temple III oval terrace wall in the area
immediately north of the plinth-stones, but the
presence of a very large, flat-bottomed pit, discussed
below, may perhaps be related to the plundering of
an access way to such a structure.
The area north of the temple is characterized by a
2.30 m-thick sequence of horizontal, sandy to clayey
layers containing animal bones, charcoal, sherds, etc.
(Fig. 18). The sherds dated layer 61 to Temple I/IIa,
layer 56 to Temple IIa and layer 51 to Temple IIb. No
clear structures were found. In layer 52 was a finely
polished rim sherd of grey steatite (Fig. 26), and the
clayey layer 56 contained, apart from a lot of animal
bones and pottery, a stamp seal:
Stamp seal no. 692x34 (Fig. 27).
Disc profile concave, grey steatite, white-glazed. On
the reverse one groove and four circles. Diameter of
the obverse 20 mm, diameter of the boss 14 mm,
total height 12 mm, disc height 7 mm.
Obverse: a standing ithyphallic man with his right
hand by his waist, holding his phallos between the
legs of his partner with his left. She is here, as usual on
most of the erotic motifs on the Dilmun seals, depicted
with her legs wide apart, grasping her feet and
drinking from a tube in a jar. A serpent winds along
her left arm. Behind the legs of the man a crescent.
The sexual theme with the individual figures in the
same relationship as on the seal here is well repre-
sented in Bahrain and is relatively common on
Dilmun seals also outside the island, and it occurs
in both Arabian Gulf and proto-Dilmun style and in
mature Dilmun style (44). The seal in question
belongs to the proto-Dilmun group in shape as well
as in style: the boss is narrow and has only one
diametrical groove, and the design of the heads and
faces of both the man and the woman are character-
istic for proto-Dilmun seals (45). The seal is of special
interest because it is the first seal found at Barbar in a
Temple IIa context, and this context confirms the
dating of the proto-Dilmun seals argued earlier.
The horizontal layers, described above, north of
the temple were cut by a huge pit with steep sides
and a flat bottom (Fig. 18.40–44, 47–48), originating
at or above level c. 3.00, i.e. cutting the Temple IIb
levels and ending in levels 4.55 to 4.85. Along the
North-South Section the pit measures only c. 4.75 m,
from c. 67–72 m N, but towards the southeast it
widened out and could be followed for 12 m and
towards the east for 7 m without its limits being
found (Fig. 19). Because of modern structures it was
difficult to follow towards the west.
The pit was filled with horizontal layers of
homogeneous yellow to grey-brown sand with some
scattered stones and plaster rubble; at level 3.50–3.60
Fig. 27.
Stamp seal in proto-Dilmun style.
Fig. 26.
Rim sherd of steatite.
F. HØJLUND ET AL.
120
a 2–10 cm thick shell layer was noted all over the pit
(also in Fig. 18.40). The few sherds, mostly side-
sherds, found in the pit date to the Sasanian-Islamic
period (Fig. 28) (46).
In the old excavations at the Barbar Temple large
pits could normally be explained as traces of stone
plundering. And with the even and almost horizon-
tal bottom of this pit, it is hardly evidence for a search
operation! It seems that something constructed of
valuable stone blocks may actually have been stand-
ing in this area, and the possible removal of such
stones can be dated by the finds of pottery to the
Sasanian-Islamic period, the main period of stone
plundering at the temple (47). With the level of the
bottom of the pit at c. 4.80, it is hardly deep enough to
have been the well chamber itself, but perhaps a
staircase leading down from the temple platform
along a route which escapes us at the moment.
Further excavation is needed to solve this question.
Conclusion
The location in 2004 of the oval platform wall of
Temple III is a reminder not to put too much
emphasis on the missing structures of this phase of
the temple compared to the earlier phases. Since
Temple III was the uppermost one and therefore the
most easily accessible to the stone plunderers, it is
no wonder that so little has survived. There is reason
to believe that future investigations may uncover
further evidence concerning phase III of the Barbar
Temple, so that its relation to the earlier temple
phases may be elucidated.
The Northeast Temple (691)
The well-chamber
About 40 m northeast of the Barbar Temple lies
another temple which was plundered down to its
foundations, a c. 24 · 24 m square, 25–30 cm-thick
layer of stone and plaster, which originally carried a
platform on top of which a building had been
standing. The Northeast Temple was partly excava-
ted in 1956 and 1961, and in the centre of the plaster
foundation a large broach was noted, but only
sounded to a depth of c. 1.5 m (48).
In 2004 the complete outline of this broach was
uncovered and measured to c. 6.25 · 2.4 m. The
edge of the plaster layer around the broach is
irregular and unfinished and appears to have been
broken up, and numerous marks from a pick-axe
along the edge clearly show how this was done.
The 1956 and 1961 excavators suggested that this
hole might contain the plundered remains of a
structure built of well-dressed limestone ashlars,
probably a shaft-stairway leading down to a well-
chamber such as that found at Umm as-Sujur
(49). During the 2004 campaign this was proved to
be the case, but the plundering of the monument was
so effective that not a single ashlar was left in situ.
The hole was emptied of its contents of inclined
layers of sand, stone and plaster rubble that had
filled it after the plundering. In 1956 some finely cut
limestone blocks were found lying ex situ in the
upper part of the hole, and in 2004 a small number
of similar well-dressed stones and fragments of such
were found in the filling. The emptying of the hole
down to a depth of 3.92 m below the plaster
foundation revealed in the subsoil sand the impres-
sion of a narrow staircase shaft sloping down
towards the east to a rectangular chamber with a
small well-hole in the floor (Fig. 29).
The slope of the staircase shaft was irregular,
leaving some plateaus, where the foundations for
the actual steps would have been built (Figs 29–30).
The clay layer 6 and the plaster-like layer 5 seen in
the section, and the four stones found in situ in
brown clayey sand, are probably part of such
foundations. It is estimated that there were c. 11
steps from the plaster foundation to the floor of the
chamber, each step measuring 40 cm deep and
25 cm high. The width of the staircase shaft is
c. 1 m, therefore with flanking side-walls of
15–20 cm thick ashlars, which are known from the
Fig. 28.
Pottery from the huge pit north of the temple: jar in light brown
ware with yellowish surface and handle in hard-fired, light
brown ware.
BARBAR TEMPLE, BAHRAIN
121