Failaka: Fouilles francaises 1984-1988: Materiel ceramique du temple-tour et epigraphique.

• Author: Yule, Paul
• Position: Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Mediterranee, vol. 48 - Book review

Failaka: Fouilles francaises 1984-1988: Materiel ceramique du temple-tour et epigraphique. Edited by YVES CALVET and MARIELLE PIC. Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Mediterranee, vol. 48. Lyon: EDITIONS DE BOCCARD, 2008. Pp. 205, illus.

This publication reports on five seasons of excavation (1984-1988) that Calvet and Pic undertook off the Kuwait coast on Failaka Island. Their trench lies in the eastern part of Site F6, on the island's southwestern corner. F6 comprises some 3000 [m.sup.2]. The excavation focused on a temple-tour in the ancient land of Dilmun. Previously (1958 to 1963), Danish excavators excavated here a large second-millennium "civil building" (quotation marks by Calvet and Pic) of 900 [m.sup.2] surface area (pp. 33. 49; cf. however, F. Hojlund, The Bronze Age Pottery [Arhus 1987], 138-49, for the identification of the building's use). The French excavation measures 1575 [m.sup.2] in area (p. 31, pit. II). Ancient quarrying had badly damaged the temple-tour (pp. 49-52), resulting in a gradual degradation of the building substance over the years and not a sudden destruction and burial. Built c. 2000 B.C.E., according to the Danish chronology, it remained in use until the mid second millennium.

This excavation report consists of a preliminary description and interpretation of the building, a catalogue of the pottery, and a catalogue of the seals and inscriptions. The contributors include Calvet, a field archaeologist known from his excavation of Ras Shamra/Ugarit (Syria), who deals with the context per se; Pic, an archaeologist and restorer from the Louvre, who studied the pottery; Jean-Jacques Glassner, an epigrapher-historian of repute, who has investigated the early history of the Lower Sea; and Elizabeth Willcox, who has translated the text into English.

The English text in this bilingual production derives from the French original, which reads more smoothly. Although acknowledging his gratitude to the authors, the reviewer notes that the first part of the presentation is particularly difficult to follow. This results from the loose coordination of the text and its figures as well as the flighty organisation of the first chapter, "Le temple-tour de Failaka dans son contexte proche-oriental" (pp. 15-32). Lack of a systematic description of the architecture and building material can only be regarded as a regrettable omission.

The plan of the southwestern corner of Failaka (p. 11, fig. 3) does not show the...