The Barbar Temples, 2 vols.

• Author: Yule, Paul
• Position: Book review

The Barbar Temples. 2 vols. By H. HELMUTH ANDERSEN and FLEMMING HOJLUND. Jutland Archaeological Publications, vol. 48. Moesgaard: JUTLAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 2003. Pp. 330, plates, plans. $66.25. [Distributed in the U.S. by David Brown Book Company, Oakville, Conn.]

Excavated by Danish colleagues, the settlement site at Qala'at al-Bahrain and the temples near the village of Barbar four kilometers distant are two of the most important sites in the Persian/Arabian Gulf. In light of the well-known Sumerian myths of Enki, Ninhursag, and Inzak, and owing to its own archaeological value, Barbar is a key site for ancient Near Eastern studies at large--not "just another one of those Gulf sites" which some colleagues still consider a Randerscheinung of our field. Following the voluminous and splendid publication of the Qala'at al-Bahrain, by Hojlund and Andersen (1994), this equally welcome volume is devoted to a site that yields much information owing to its relatively good preservation, competent excavation, and thorough documentation.

While in 1878 E. L. Durand first noted the mound (Durand 1880; the reviewer's bibliographical keys derive from the publication under discussion), P. V. Glob discovered the Barbar temple in 1954 during the course of the first Danish expedition. The present volume documents the excavation over eight campaigns from 1954 to 1962 of the successive Temples I to III and the NE temple, 30m to the northeast of the Barbar temple (pp. 8-21). At the end of the excavation in January 1962, the team covered the ruins for obvious reasons. But at the request of the Ministry of Information, in 1983 the excavators cleared the fill for the conference "Bahrain through the Ages," also making it accessible to tourists.

At the outset of the excavation it was clear that the mound contained demolished temples, one built upon the other. The constructional history establishes the relative dating of the three temples, each with a marked character of its own. Each building platform had its own surface height or floor level (p. 23), which with each building was successively raised and at the same time broadened. The Temple la central platform, some 20 x 25m, expanded by some 35 x 35m with Temple III. Owing to stone scavenging, the walls of Temple IIb in particular are not completely intact, but can be reliably graphically reconstructed (figs. 3-5).

This two-volume work supersedes numerous English-Danish bilingual reports, preliminary reports...