The Dilmun Burial Mounds (Arabic: مدافن دلمون, romanized: Madāfin Dilmūn) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They include burial areas on the main island of Bahrain, which date back to the Dilmun and Umm al-Nar cultures.
Bahrain has been known since ancient times as an island with many burial sites. These burial areas covered a large area and were once considered one of the largest cemeteries in the ancient world. The cemeteries are mainly located in the northern part of the island, on hard, stony ground that is slightly above the farmland. The southern part of the island is mostly sandy and desert-like. Recent studies suggest that about 350,000 ancient burial mounds may have been created by the local population over thousands of years. The graves are not all from the same time period or style, and their sizes vary in different parts of the burial area. Research, supported by the Bahrain National Museum (with the Bahrain Historical and Archaeological Society involved), continues to study these differences and determine their timeline. Scientists are also examining what these burial practices reveal about the societies that created them.
Excavations
Between Sunday, February 10, and Tuesday, February 19, 1889, some mounds were excavated by British explorer J. Theodore Bent and his wife, Mabel Bent. According to Mrs. Bent’s diary, they found “… bits of ivory, charcoal, ostrich eggshell…”. These items are now in the British Museum in London. Theodore Bent shared his findings in two articles, but a more detailed description was published in the Bents’ book Southern Arabia (1900). At A'ali, three cuneiform inscriptions were found in Mound 8. Each inscription was a variation of the text “[Pa]lace of [Y]aglī-’el, [son] of Ri’mum, [the servant] of Inzak [of] Akarum.” The same inscription was later found on the surface at Qal'at al-Bahrain.
In the 1950s, a Danish group was excavating Qal'at al-Bahrain, the Bronze Age capital city. They opened some tumuli and discovered items from around 4100–3700 years ago. Others later excavated more graves, revealing details about their construction and contents.
Each tumulus has a central stone chamber surrounded by a low ring-wall and covered with earth and gravel. The size of the mounds varies, but most are 15 by 30 feet (4.5 by 9 meters) in diameter and 3–6 feet (1–2 meters) high. Smaller mounds usually have one chamber. Chambers are typically rectangular, with one or two alcoves at the northeast end. Larger chambers sometimes have additional pairs of alcoves in the middle.
Most chambers held one burial, though some had multiple people, and others had no remains. The deceased were usually placed with their heads near the alcove and lying on their right sides. Few items accompanied the bodies, including pottery, shell or stone stamp seals, baskets sealed with asphalt, ivory objects, stone jars, and copper weapons. The skeletons represent both sexes, with an average life expectancy of about 40 years. Babies were often buried near or outside the ring-wall. The average number of children per family was 1.6.
Efforts to protect the burial mounds have faced opposition from religious fundamentalists who believe the mounds are un-Islamic. During a parliamentary debate on July 17, 2005, Sheikh Adel Mouwda, leader of the Salafist al Asalah party, stated, “Housing for the living is better than graves for the dead. We must have pride in our Islamic roots and not in an ancient civilization from another place and time, which has only given us a jar here and a bone there.”