Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus | Explore & Learn

The Divine World: Gulf Region

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On the island of Bahrain, temples of the late third millennium B.C. have been excavated at Saar and Barbar. The Barbar sequence of three temples can be dated to the centuries around 2000 B.C. The oval shape of Temple I and II may reveal old traditions going back to Sumerian temples like that of Al-Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia. The temple was situated at a freshwater spring. It may have been dedicated to the main deity of Dilmun called Inzak whom the Mesopotamians introduced into their own pantheon as the son of their freshwater god Enki. Religious symbolism as seen on the seals from the Gulf borrows heavily from Mesopotamia, though the underlying meanings may have changed in the transfer.


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Images, from top to bottom: Bull's head, late 3rd–early 2nd millennium B.C. Gulf region, Bahrain, Barbar temple IIA. Bahrain National Museum, Manama 517.FJ. Vessel fragment with figural design, mid-to-late 3rd millennium B.C. Gulf region, Tarut Island. National Museum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2663, 2664.

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