Archaeologists have made several significant discoveries at a prehistoric settlement in the Middle East, including an enigmatic clay head figurine.
Researchers made the findings during this year's season of archaeological investigations at Bahra 1, a site in the Al-Subiyah desert of northern Kuwait that dates back to the mid-6th millennium B.C. more than 7,000 years ago. The site is among the oldest and largest known prehistoric settlements on the Arabian Peninsula.
Since 2009, a Kuwaiti-Polish archaeological mission has been investigating Bahra 1, revealing it to be an essential site for understanding the cultural exchanges between Neolithic societies of the Peninsula and the Ubaid culture. This culture was a prehistoric civilization spreading from Mesopotamia (a historic region centered on modern-day Iraq) across a large area—from Anatolia to the Arabian Peninsula—around the time that Bahra 1 dates to.
Now, recent investigations at Bahra 1, considered to be the largest Ubaid settlement on the Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf) coast, have cast new light on the prehistoric site, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw (PCMA UW), announced.
Among the most notable finds is a tiny, finely crafted anthropomorphic clay head featuring an elongated skull, slanting eyes and a flat nose that is thought to be around 7,500 years old, according to Hasan Ashkanani, an assistant professor of anthropological archaeology at Kuwait University.
These features are characteristic of figurines from the Ubaid culture. While similar examples have been found in grave and domestic contexts from Mesopotamia, the latest discovery at Bahra 1 represents the first to be uncovered in the Gulf region, according to the researchers.
"Its presence raises intriguing questions about its purpose and the symbolic, or possibly ritualistic, value it held for the people of this ancient community," Piotr Bieliński, who co-led the Polish side of the expedition, said in a statement.
Researchers also uncovered conclusive evidence of the production of a type of pottery known as coarse red ware. This prehistoric pottery, made from coarse clay with a reddish hue, was often used for everyday purposes like storage and cooking.
Coarse red ware was long believed to have been locally made in the Gulf region, but its exact production sites remained unidentified until recent archaeological discoveries at Bahra 1. Results like these from the site suggest that Bahra 1 is the oldest known pottery production site in the Gulf, according to the PCMA UW.
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