CLAY ROCKS!

Manama

 The clay tablet, which was found recently at the Qalat Al Bahrain site, is a judicial contract for a loan of dates, said the Counsellor for Archaeological Affairs, Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA), Dr. Pierre Lombard.

DT News on April 8 reported that archaeologists had found a long text written on a piece of clay at the Qalat Al Bahrain site.

“The clay piece, which contains Cuneiform script written in Akkadian, a semitic language spoken in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq and Syria), confirms the Babylonian control on the island during late Dilmun period,” explained Dr. Pierre Lombard, who heads a team of six French archaeologists in Bahrain, in a press briefing.

“The last digging season of the French team, carried out during seven weeks from March 7 to April 23, appeared to be an exceptional one in terms of results,” he said.

According to the epigrapher, who is specialised in reading ancient scripts, the clay piece, which is almost equal to a soap, dates back to 504 to 503 BC. “The back of the tablet has been deliberately scratched, probably after the reimbursement of the loan,” said the archaeologist. “Unfortunately, the name of the place where such contract was established was also erased.”

Dr. Pierre Lombard also revealed that the archaeologists had found a gold plaque deftly incised with the figure of a praying lady. “The interpretation of such a piece, found in a settlement site and not a cemetery, is a daunting task,” he said, adding that the new finding might be related to first century BC or first century AD.

“The clay tablet will be kept for exhibition at the Qalat Al Bahrain museum, while the gold plaque will be showcased at Bahrain Museum, where a separate section will be opened to display the findings related to Tylos layer (between 1st century BC and 1st century AD),” he added. 

The French archaeological mission plans to come back for a new season of excavation at the end of February 2016. President of BACA Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Dr. Alaa Habshi and Dr. Elie Flouty were present at the press meet.