Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (3(39).2014)

Andrzej Reiche Kuwaiti-Polish Archaeological Research in Northern Kuwait...

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The extension of the house in this phase involved not only the building of new rooms but
also laying out of new stone wall bases on top of the walls of the older phase. This may indicate
that the operation was connected with rebuilding of the settlement, partly on a new, plan, after
a time of abandonment of unknown duration. Traces of similar reconstructions were observed
also in a few places in House 2.
The last modification within House 1 involved reducing the size of the bead workshop
almost by half, by moving its southern wall to the north, up to the edge of the working table,
thus creating a large, almost square room with a stone-paved floor south of it.
In the western part of the house, which was also added in the second phase, a group of
four large storage vessels was brought to light. The three jars and a bowl were imports from
Mesopotamia. In a narrow room just east of the space with the vessels, a large, square ceramic
basin of the same origin was found in pieces. The vessels belonged to the youngest usage
phase of the settlement. Unfortunately, no remains were preserved that might indicate their
function, but they can be assumed to have been used for storing food.
In a large, rectangular room uncovered in the southeastern part of House 1, just the south-
ern part of the floor was paved with stone slabs. An oval stone-lined hearth by the pavement’s
northern edge might be a clue indicating a residential character of this part of the house.
Finds from the Bahra 1 Settlement
The settlement yielded large quantities of pottery fragments, both decorated and plain27
(fig. 14). Among the attested forms, various types of bowls and plates were the most frequent,
but cups and jars were also present, as were fragments of storage vessels. The painted deco-
ration adorning many of the potsherds with motifs of triangles, rhombi, dense oblique grid,
and straight or wavy lines set into bands, is typical of early Ubaid period (Ubaid zly late sixth
- early fifth millennium BC). The firing process gave the paint various shades of brown which
contrasted against the light (greenish to buff) background. These vessels were imported from
Mesopotamia. In the discovered assemblage there are also vessels made of red clay, most of
them fragments of pots or bowls, which are regarded as kitchen ware, used for the preparation
of food. They were fired at low temperatures, as attested by the black core visible in their sec-
tions. Vessels of this type are believed to be local products, typical for the Arabian Peninsula
since the late Neolithic period. Many have imprints of plaited mats upon which they were
standing during forming on the bottom of their base.
Among the numerous small finds,28 special attention should be drawn to fragments of
small bowls set on a vertical, conical handle, made of red, poorly-fired clay (fig. 15). Although
such objects are characteristic for Ubaid sites, their function escapes identification. A
unique find is a large decorated spindle whorl made of greenish clay, typical for imports
from Mesopotamia (fig. 16). Among the most common objects, found throughout the whole
site, are small and light conical rings made of local clay, which come in a large variety of sizes
(fig. 17). Also in this case, the purpose of the objects is, so far, unknown. Among other finds,
there was a fair number of locally-made objects, interpreted as lip and ear ornaments - shaped
as conical pegs or flanged discs, made of fired clay - which have also been attested at most
27 Smogorzewska, “Pottery from...,” op. cit., pp. 38-45; ead., “Pottery from Bahra 1 (Kuwait). New evidence for
the presence of Ubaid culture in the Gulf,” Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (Research 2010), 22 (2013), pp. 555-68.
28 Reiche, “Small Finds...,” op. cit., pp. 46-49.