Integrity Score 135
No Records Found
No Records Found
No Records Found
DILMUN BURIAL MOUNDS
The Dilmun Burial Mounds is a serial property formed by 21 archaeological sites located in the western part of the island of Bahrain. Six of the selected site components are burial mound fields consisting of some dozen to several thousand tumuli. Together they comprise about 11,774 burial mounds. The remaining 15 site components consist of 13 single royal mounds and two pairs of royal mounds, all embedded in the urban fabric of A’ali village.
The Dilmun Burial Mounds were constructed during the Early Dilmun Period over a period of 450 years, approximately between 2200 and 1750 BCE. The property encompasses the most representative sites of Early and Late Type Dilmun Burial Mound construction. The burial mounds bear witness to the flourishing of the Early Dilmun civilization around the 2nd millennium BCE. During that period, Bahrain gained economic importance on an international level as a trade hub which led to population growth and, as a consequence, to a more diversified social complexity. The latter is best reflected in the extensive necropoli with their variety of graves, comprising burial mounds of various sizes, as well as chieftain mounds and the grandest of them all, the royal mounds. The Dilmun Burial Mounds illustrate globally-unique characteristics not only with regards to their numbers, density and scale but also in terms of construction typology and details, such as their alcove-equipped burial chambers.
Architecture - Evolution of the Early Dilmun civilization is reflected in the architecture of the Dilmun Burial Mounds. Five different mound types give clues about the emergence of social hierarchies. Even though the burial mounds can be divided according to variations in size and interior design, the basic layout of the mounds remains the same throughout the 450-year period. The construction typology is exceptional. The majority of the tombs were constructed as single-storeyed small cylindrical towers while some of the bigger two-storeyed examples were built in a ziggurat-like shape. A very particular and unique characteristic of the Dilmun tumuli construction is the presence of alcoves. Depending on the occupant’s social status there can be up to six of such alcoves which were usually filled with mortuary gifts.