Kadhima: Kuwait in the early centuries of Islam.

KADHIMA KUWAIT IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF ISLAM by Derek Kennet with contributions from Brian Ulrich and Sterenn Le Maguer 2013 2 ArcHAeologIcAl reseArcH Into KuwAIt In eArly IslAMIc tIMes 1 U nknown to many Kuwaitis themselves, Kuwait has an important archaeological heritage that goes back at least 7,500 years. For most of beginnings of Islam and the great conquests of the Muslim armies? this long time Kuwait found itself located on the Unfortunately very little is preserved in borders of Mesopotamia, the most technologically historical sources. Few written records were kept and socially advanced place in the ancient world. at the time by a population that relied almost This proximity to an ancient cultural ‘superpower’ entirely on memory, story-telling and poetry to certainly affected Kuwait’s development and record its history and culture. The historians who has meant that many of the key developments in irst wrote down the history of early Islam 200 human history are represented here. Most people years later were based in the great Islamic cites don’t know, for example, that the oldest evidence such as Damascus, Baghdad and Basra and knew of a masted sailing boat comes in the form of a little of events that took place in the arid and small painting on a pot sherd from the site of ‘H3’ thinly-populated Arabian Peninsula. They were in Sabiyya in the north of Kuwait dated to about in no position to record its history. Despite valiant 5,000 BC. Few people realise that Tell Sa’id, the attempts by authors such as Tabari, the early Bronze Age site on Failaka, at almost 4,000 years history of the irst Muslim communities in Arabia old, is one of the oldest maritime merchant colonies remains very much shrouded in darkness. These known, and stands next to the Greek fortress on writers were interested in the big political and the island, which was itself in use around 280 BC. military events of the time but they tell us little of how people lived and what they thought about in In the midst of all of this history, the Islamic their everyday lives. period sometimes gets overlooked. However, almost all Kuwaitis know the early Islamic name There is only one way in which we might be ‘Kadhima’, the earliest attested name for the able to throw light on this darkness and that is Kuwait Bay area, and most Kuwaitis have also through archaeology. In the absence of written heard of the famous ‘Battle of the Chains’ or dhat history it is to the material culture of these early al-salasil, an important battle that is reputed to communities that we must turn if we wish to have taken place at Kadhima between the early understand where they lived, how they lived and Muslim and the Sasanian Persian armies in the irst how their lives changed. This means we have to century of Islam. Both of these names have entered look for the remains of their houses, the wells Kuwaiti national consciousness and are used by they used, the pottery and other implements they numerous businesses and shops as trade marks. used in their daily lives and sometimes even the rubbish they threw away – such as bones, sea The name ‘Kadhima’ today refers to a location shells and other refuse. These are the techniques on the shores of Kuwait Bay a few kilometres north of the modern town of Jahra, but it seems that its older meaning was quite different. In medieval times it seems that Kadhima referred to the whole of the Kuwait area, possibly as far down the coast as Bahrain. It is quite common for the meaning of place names to move in this way through history and it seems that Kadhima is a good example of this. What then of the archaeology of the early centuries of Islam at Kadhima? Of course, it was during the 1st century of Islam (roughly the 7th century AD), with the rise and spread of Islam out of Arabia and the Islamic conquests of the Byzantine and Persian empires, that Arabia and the Arabs took the central stage of world history. But what do we know of the lives of those who inhabited this part of Arabia at this time, witnessing the 4 Date AD Date Hijra Historical events Kadhima archaeological evidence 224 Beginning of Sasanian Empire based in Persia/Iran No evidence has yet been found 570 Birth of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) 622 0 Hijra – the light of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his followers from Mecca to Medina. This marks the start of the Islamic calendar ‘Torpedo jar’ trading sites along the coast of Sabiyya in use? 632-661 11-132 Rightly Guided Caliphs – the irst four caliphs or lead- ers of the Islamic community (Abu Baker, Umar, Uthman and Ali) who were based in Medina 633 11 Battle of Dhat al-Salasil and beginning of the Islamic conquests of Syria, Iraq and Iran 651 30 Last Sasanian ruler dies during Islamic conquest of Iran 661-750 41-132 Umayyad caliphate – the capital of the Islamic world was moved to Damascus in Syria Settlements at Area E and Mughaira founded? 750 132 Abbasid Caliphate – the capital of the Islamic world Coin found at Area E minted (740/741 AD or 123 was moved to Iraq, where Baghdad was founded in hijra) 761 AD and quickly became one of the largest cities House at Area ABC built in the world 9th century 183-286 First extant mention of Kadhima in historical texts from Settlements at Area E and Mughaira abandoned this time ‘Samarra horizon’ pottery introduced House at Area ABC abandoned Shiqaya in the Wadi al-Batin founded 10th century 286-390 Buyid conquest of Iraq, decline of Abbasid control in Abandonment of Shiqaya, no evidence of settlement Arabia Time charT of The early islamic period showing The relaTed evidence from Kadhima of the archaeologist and they are all that is left research on the Kadhima sites. The team is now to us if we want to gain an insight into the lives of engaged in its fourth season of ieldwork. A inal the people who lived in Kadhima during the irst publication about the work will appear after centuries of Islam. ive seasons of ieldwork have been completed. Meanwhile, this present book is intended to present In 2009, in the face of the rapid construction an outline of the results that have been achieved of roads, pipelines, houses and factories all over so far. Kuwait, the National Council for Culture Arts and Letters (NCCAL) took the wise step of beginning to record, excavate and preserve as many of the remains of this important part of Kuwait’s history as possible. Some years before, Mr Sultan al- Duwish of NCCAL had undertaken archaeological survey along Kuwait Bay between the modern town of Jahra and the Sabiyya peninsula. He located a number of small ancient settlements marked on the ground only by a few stone walls covered with sand and vegetation and a scatter of blue glazed potsherds. A few associated coins allowed him to demonstrate that these settlements were datable to the Umayyad period (around the 8th century AD) and were the very houses occupied by the earliest Muslims during those momentous years. Mr al-Duwish published his indings in Arabic in the book Kadhima al-Buhur, produced by NCCAL in 2005. NCCAL then contacted the Department of Archaeology at Durham University and invited them to come to Kuwait to investigate and record these sites in order to help understand the early Islamic past of the region. Since 2009 a team of academics and specialists mostly from Durham University but also from the Sorbonne in Paris and Shippensburg in the US has been travelling to Kuwait each year during the winter to undertake 5 one of The Kadhima siTes discovered by sulTan al-duwish 6 geogrApHy AnD envIronMent 2 Derek Kennet and Brian Ulrich K uwait’s history has been shaped by its climate, geography, location and natural resources. The sparse rainfall of its desert environment has Another during the 6th and 7th centuries brought the tribes of Tamim and Bakr b. Wa’il, who dominated the region of Kadhima in the early meant that most people spent at least part of the centuries of Islam. year seeking pasture for their herds, while also making part of their living from the sea or from Culturally, Kuwait has been shaped by both crops tended in areas that had enough ground Arabian and Mesopotamian inluences. From water. The harshness of Kuwait’s climate and the Arabia came the religion of Islam, the Arabic mobility of its people has meant that even though language, the vast majority of the population, and rulers of surrounding countries might occasionally the arts of Arabic poetry which are still practiced have claimed the area as part of their realm, they today. From Mesopotamia, with its ancient tradition could seldom actually rule it and the inhabitants of irrigated farming supporting the wealthy preserved their independence. inhabitants of cities, came much of the material goods of daily life as well as the wealth that Kuwait’s location has made it something of allowed the inhabitants of Kadhima to afford what a transition zone between Mesopotamia and their ancestors would have seen as luxuries. the Arabian Peninsula on the one hand and the Indian Ocean and the Middle East on the other. Much of that wealth passed into Kuwaiti The Middle East is criss-crossed by long-distance hands via trade routes which crossed the Arabian caravan routes. Camels laden with trade goods Peninsula to Bahrain, Yamama, Oman, the Hijaz such as incense, textiles and spices gave rise to and Yemen. Some of these trade routes were cities whose wealth was based on such trade, very ancient. For example there is good evidence the most famous are Palmyra in Syria, Petra in that frankincense and myrrh were carried across Jordan, and Meda’in Saleh in Saudi Arabia. At Arabia by merchants from its production centres the same time, the earliest known sea voyages in Oman and Yemen all the way to Iraq as early took place in the Arabian Gulf and Arabian Sea, as 1300 BC. These merchants were probably stopping at intervals between Mesopotamia and amongst the irst to carry their goods on camels, as the civilization of the Indus Valley and forming this was the time that the camel was irst used as connections between the Middle East and India a pack animal. The journey probably took as long that continue to the present. The Gulf dhow trade, as four months in each direction, and would have in which Kuwait was always prominent, developed been a dificult enterprise fraught with the dangers out of this. The trade connections which formed of robbery, illness, thirst and hunger. across the Indian Ocean and as far as China made it one of the most important economic and cultural Basra routes in world history. Kuwait Bay offers good protection to ships and many points around the bay, such as Failaka Island, Kuwait City and Akkaz Island, have all functioned as signiicant ports in their time. The Islamic conquests of the 7th century inaugurated an era of increased trade from North Africa to Central Asia. It seems that those who lived in Kadhima – what is now Kuwait – would have beneitted from the new wealth created during this era, wealth which helped to give them a better standard of living than that of surrounding areas. Hijaz / Yamama Bahrain Kuwait was also a crossroads between Arabia and Mesopotamia. Periodically throughout history 0 175km drought conditions have sent people from the Arabian deserts towards Mesopotamia. Today, many Kuwaitis trace their roots to one such map showing The Two possible rouTes Through KuwaiT, migration during the 17th and 18th centuries. one along The wadi al-baTin and one Through Kadhima 8 map showing main Trade and pilgrim rouTes inTo arabia Other trade routes left the cities of southern modern Saudi Arabia. This would probably have and western Mesopotamia either straight across been the route used by those living in Baghdad the desert or following the Wadi al-Batin towards and the cities of central Iraq. For those living the Hijaz in western Saudi Arabia. Other routes in the south of Iraq around the important city followed the coast southwards towards Bahrain of Basra, it would have been more convenient and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, which to follow a route known as the ‘Tariq Basra’ or was collectively known under the name ‘Bahrayn’ the ‘Basra Road’. This route left from Basra and by medieval Arabic writers. probably followed the Wadi al-Batin, the wide ancient wadi that forms the modern western Many of these trade routes crossed the area border of the State of Kuwait. It is probable that known as ‘Kadhima’ and the region is mentioned there were wells and stations along the route by many medieval Arabic sources because of the where pilgrims could obtain hospitality and food. wells at which travellers rested as they moved Twice a year – once on the outward journey and through the arid lands around. Living close to an once on the return – the wadi would have seen important trade route would have bought many large numbers of pilgrims making the ive-month advantages to the local inhabitants. Offering round journey, some on camel, some on horse but services to the travellers and trading with them the vast majority on foot. This too would have as they passed through would have provided a meant contact with the outside world, bringing living for many, but the international contact would with it ideas and education, whilst providing also have meant that the occupants of Kadhima services for the pilgrims would have provided the were not isolated. Conversations with travelling occupants of Kadhima with a good livelihood. merchants would have kept them informed and educated about different parts of the world and It is possible that some of the pilgrims would the latest developments in large cities such as have followed the coast instead of taking the Baghdad, Basra and Samarra. interior route along the Wadi al-Batin. It may be that the coastal route was better provided Early in the Islamic period another type of with wells and that this attracted the pilgrims, travel became popular for the irst time and that is especially in periods when the hajj took place of course pilgrimage. Already by the 8th century during the hot and arid summer months. Iraq was one of the key population centres of the Islamic world and large numbers of Muslims Both merchant and pilgrim trafic would have set off every year for the holy cities of Mecca put ancient Kadhima on the international map and Medina in the west of modern Saudi Arabia. and would have provided it with income and There were various routes that pilgrims used, one contacts. Being on an ancient trade route is good departed from the city of Kufa in western Iraq and business – and everyone knows that Kuwaitis have headed straight across what is now the north of always been good at business. 9 Geography In the interior, the western border of Kuwait runs along the Wadi al-Batin. This wadi is one For our purposes, Kuwait can be divided into of the three great Pliocene wadis that drained the coastal zone and the Wadi al-Batin, both Arabia millions of years ago when it was still a of which create lines of communication running very wet place. The Wadi al-Batin is a wide basin roughly from north to south. The coastal zone is of low, lat topography that is several kilometres separated from the desert interior by the Jal al- wide. The wadi runs all the way into the interior Zor, a low but quite abrupt ridge that runs all the of Saudi Arabia, and was once responsible for way from behind Jahra to the place called al- draining the greater part of the northern Arabian Mudairah where it turns inland away from the sea. Peninsula. As well as forming the modern border of In most places it is possible for a man with pack Kuwait, the wadi has long served as a trade and animals to ind a way up the Jal al-Zor, but there pilgrimage route between Iraq and the western are some places, such as near to Jahra, where part of Saudi Arabia. access has always been easier and which have therefore developed into preferred routes. In between the Jal al-Zor and the sea lies a fairly narrow coastal strip three to four kilometres wide with gently sloping terrain leading down to the extensive sabkha or salt lats around Kuwait Bay. Along this narrow coastal strip there are a number of wells that are known to the older inhabitants of the region, who still remember a time when cars were not available to make the journey between Jahra and Sabiyya. These wells are conveniently situated at distances of about 30km, which would have been about a day’s march for a caravan, and it seems likely that they were once part of a route network. well aT mughaira excavaTed by The polish Team wadi al-baTin landscape 10 KADHIMA In wrItten recorDs 3 Brian Ulrich S ometime in the 8th century the art of papermaking arrived in the Middle East. Paper is much cheaper than parchment or papyrus, raids. At the same time, Sasanian merchants were known in the port cities of the Arabian Peninsula, and the empire also sought mineral resources from and its availability helped spark an explosion scattered mining sites. of knowledge enabled by the ability to record more than one person could remember. Initially The Sasanians also made their inluence felt the religious scholars in particular did not trust in north-east Arabia through alliance with a tribe written texts, believing they should serve only as called the Lakhmids whose capital was at al-Hira memory aids. If a person simply read a book, along the lower Euphrates. The Nasrid dynasty he was not considered an expert on it. Instead, which ruled the Lakhmids developed an Arabic one had to recite the book from memory before court culture, and their support for poets probably a scholar could check one’s understanding. Over began the process of forming a common literary time, however, the conveniences of texts won out, language out of the different dialects spoken by and libraries were illed with knowledge written the Arab tribes. During the Abbasid caliphate, in the Arabic language. Kadhima is mentioned which began in AD 750, when descendants of prominently in texts of history, literature, and the Arabs living in Mesopotamian cities began geography. taking a new interest in their Arabian roots, stories of the Lakhmids became an important part of Arabic literature. According to one of these, a Nasrid princess lived in a palace at Kadhima and had a romantic affair with a Bedouin poet of the Bakr b. Wa’il tribe who came to water his camels at its wells. At the beginning of the 600s AD, the Sasanians eliminated the Lakhmids, and in the course of a great war against the Byzantine Empire, appointed Persian governors in eastern Arabia. This was the world in which Islam appeared, with the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) making the hijra in AD 622. In the generations after his death, Arab Muslim armies conquered the entire Sasanian Empire and the areas of the Byzantine Empire that are now part of the Arab world, such as Syria and Egypt. They also founded new cities, originally as garrisons for the Arab armies: Basra and Kufa are handwriTTen medieval arabic manuscripT two of these which still exist in southern Iraq. (Flickr user Adam Jones under a Creative Commons licence) Dhat al-Salasil The most famous historical event set at Kadhima was the Battle of the Chains during the Islamic Before Islam conquests (Yawm Dhat al-Salasil). According to a historian named Sayf b. Umar, who lived The most important power on the eve of Islam during the 8th century, this was the irst battle in the Gulf region was the Sasanian Empire. Like of the campaign against the Sasanian Empire, the other great empires of the ancient world, it and a victory for the Muslims commanded by was multi-ethnic, with a dynasty of Persian origin the prominent Companion Khalid bin al-Walid in ruling over populations from Mesopotamia to AD 633. Before marching toward Mesopotamia, what is now Turkmenistan. The Arab tribes often Khalid invited the Sasanians to surrender represented a threat to its security, and so in the peacefully, but of course they refused. As he 4th century the ruler Shapur II launched a punitive headed north-east from al-Yamama, Khalid varied invasion of Arabia and had a trench dug from Hit his route slightly so as to give the impression that along the Euphrates in Iraq’s al-Anbar Province he was headed irst to Kadhima, then to al- to Kadhima to defend the river valleys from Arab Hufayr in the Wadi al-Batin, and then to Kadhima 12 again. This forced the heavily armed Persians, books on manners written centuries later. When he commanded by their general Hormuz, to exhaust died in the 660s, he was buried on a hill called al- themselves marching between the two possible Maqarr in Kadhima. Today we do not know where destinations. When the battle actually happened this was, but in the years after his death the poor at Kadhima, Sayf claims that the Persians fought and oppressed would take refuge at the burial site chained together to prevent desertion. Early in the of this man who had been their friend in life. ighting, Hormuz challenged Khalid to a duel, and Khalid accepted and killed the Persian leader. This Despite his desert roots, al-Farazdaq spent demoralized the Sasanian army, and the Muslims much of his time in cities, where he even became were able to win a victory over the much-better a court poet who sang the praises of Umayyad equipped force. caliphs even as he composed satires against tribes which were rivals of his own. As is the nature of Some historians have questioned the accuracy court politics, however, he sometimes fell out of of this account, beginning with the great 10th- favour and was imprisoned or had to lee. On century historian Tabari, who includes it in his work one such occasion an Umayyad governor sent an nonetheless. For example, before the battle, Sayf agent to Kadhima to look for him, but the poet had claims that Hormuz wrote to the Sasanian ruler actually gone all the way to Medina. Ardashir III, who died when Muhammad (pbuh) was still alive. Even hadith scholars who honoured the Kuwait and the Hajj Companions as the irst Muslims accused Sayf of sometimes forging accounts of them, and this may With the expansion of Islam into Mesopotamia, be the case with this battle, which we know of only pilgrims began passing through what is now from him. Kuwait on the way to perform the hajj. Kadhima is mentioned along a possible route from Basra Whatever the reality of the battle, aspects to Mecca in Ibrahim al-Harbi’s Places of the of the account clearly show the signiicance of Hajj Roads and Sights of the Arabian Peninsula, Kadhima during this historical period. At the most an important 9th-century guide to the Arabian basic level, we see the historical pattern of what pilgrimage routes. The most direct route from is now Kuwait being the transition zone between Basra, however, was through the Wadi al-Batin. Arabia and Mesopotamia. In addition, during This route, unfortunately, was very dry, and was the battle, the Sasanians positioned themselves kept up with signiicant investment in wells by speciically to block the Muslims’ access to government authorities. wells. These wells were the source of Kadhima’s livelihood, and would be an important feature of Many have heard of the hajj route from the area mentioned in later geographical works. Baghdad to Mecca via Kufah, which in later The aquifers which they tapped also allowed for centuries would come to be known as the ‘Darb plants to grow in the area, as can be seen in the Zubaydah’ after its most prominent patron. The modern Sabah al-Ahmed National Park, and poets route down the Wadi al-Batin seems not to have would write of the green of the area and the trees lasted long enough to get such a name, but the which provided shade. Unfortunately, today little caliphs put equal effort into developing it as a of this environment remains. service to those performing this pillar of Islam, and in fact the Abbasid caliphs would use both during A Shaykh and a Poet their own pilgrimages, often departing along one route and returning via the other, before the routes As noted above, Kadhima was also mentioned declined during the 800s. in poetry. Perhaps the irst famous person associated with Kadhima was al-Farazdaq, a Development at Kadhima poet who was born in the mid-600s AD and died around 730. In Arabic literature al-Farazdaq, Although the tribes whose names are associated whose works we can still read today, represents with Kadhima were among the more famous the transition between the poetry of the desert and nomadic groups of pre-Islamic Arabia, Arabic that of the court, both environments in which he was geographic writings from the 9th century describe comfortable. a well-built-up region which seems to have served as a small urban centre for the Kuwait Bay area. Al-Farazdaq was born in al-Yamama, but his The most prominent building they mention was a father was Ghalib b. Sa’sa’a, a leader of the fortress located at the place where the road from Darim clan of the Tamim who lived primarily in the north forked, with one branch heading down what is now Kuwait. He was often found at the the coast and the other inland toward al-Yamama. place today called al-Sada in central Kuwait, In the 12th century the North African geographer which was then a gathering place for the Tamim al-Idrisi, who based his work on interviews with in the region. Ghalib b. Sa’sa’a was known for his travellers who came to Sicily, mentioned a fortress generosity, including to total strangers, and was on a great height, which might be the same even used as a prime example of generosity in structure. No source tells us whose fort this was. 13 The written sources from centuries ago testify members of The durham universiTy Team to the fact that Kadhima was an important place excavaTing aT Kadhima in north-eastern Arabia, a place known at least to educated people throughout the Islamic world. Unfortunately, they do not tell us much we might like to know. How did the people in this area live? What were their houses like? How did they make their living? What did they eat? How did those things change over time? For the answers to these and other questions, we must leave the world of texts for the actual physical remains these predecessors of today’s Kuwaitis handled, built and left behind, remains buried over time in the desert sands. We must turn to archaeology. 14 archaeologisTs from The joinT durham universiTy/nccal Team conducTing a sysTemaTic surface survey ArcHAeologIcAl fIelDworK In KuwAIt: 4 Bedouin, kites and trowels Field Survey Once ‘ield survey’ such as this has been carried out over a wide area, it is possible to produce a M ost people’s conception of an archaeologist is someone who digs holes to ind buried ancient objects. In reality archaeology is a complex science map of archaeological sites. A simple glance at such a map will often tell a very clear story. For example, it may be possible to see a that incorporates a wide range of sophisticated concentration of prehistoric settlement around techniques and methods. a good harbour area, which would perhaps indicate that contact with the sea was important Probably the most important technique during the prehistoric period, or there may available to the archaeologist – and probably be evidence of medieval settlement close to a the least known – is ‘ield survey’. This is a method road, indicating that road travel was important for mapping ancient settlement patterns across a during the medieval period. It may also be landscape. To conduct a ield survey archaeologists possible to say something about population divide the landscape they are studying into densities, such as that there was a higher squares or ‘transects’ and then walk systematically population in the medieval period than there had across each of them – normally in long lines of been in the Iron Age in a given area. researchers spaced at regular intervals. Whilst doing this, they record any archaeological The importance of this work is obvious as evidence that they encounter – stone walls, pottery, it allows archaeologists to see how the human lint, glass or any other traces of human activity. population has used the whole landscape and all Each of these ind spots is then marked on a map, of its resources – agricultural, maritime, transport, and archaeologists return at a later date to make water, mineral and so forth – but it also gives more detailed notes, collect samples and to try to information on how the population and economy determine the date when the activity took place. has changed through time. 16 map of TransecTs searched by archaeological survey in The Kadhima area 17 map of siTes locaTed by survey 18 Techniques like this are especially useful and the archaeological evidence were to be covered important in an environment such as that of Kuwait with thick plant life. for three key reasons: delation, lack of vegetation and Bedouin. Let us discuss each of these points in The third point concerns Bedouin. Nomadic turn. ‘Delation’ describes the natural process by lifestyles such as that adopted by the Bedouin which the wind erodes the surface of the ground, are always critical in marginal, arid environments blowing away the ine silt and sand leaving only such as that of Kuwait and its surrounding region. larger objects such as stones, pottery sherds, In order to make a living from the land, humans glass fragments and lints. This process, which have found it useful to move with the seasons in continues over many thousands of years, eventually order to exploit different environmental niches removes all of the silt and sand that has buried an at different times of the year according to what archaeological site and leaves only the material is most productive. Bedouin have probably been lying exposed on the surface. In one respect this is a key part of the desert economy for many a great pity as the site is actually being damaged thousands of years, but the problem that they by erosion, but the plus side is that the ancient present to the archaeologist is that they are evidence is naturally exposed on the surface for very dificult to ind. This is because they didn’t the archaeologist to see and record. The fact that build houses, and they tended to use very few the process of delation is so powerful in the windy, heavy, breakable goods such as pottery that sandy desert environment of Kuwait means that archaeologists can easily ind. How then can the map drawn up by archaeologists is much more archaeologists detect the presence of Bedouin in complete than it would be in an environment such the past? It is really only through the remains of as northern Europe, where there is little delation their campsites, scattered stones that were lined and heavy soil cover and where archaeological up to hold the tent walls down; or the remains of remains often lie buried several metres below the a cooking hearth or a few fragments of sea shell surface invisible to everyone. and animal bone, the detritus from a family meal. These are exactly the sorts of remains that might The second point is the general lack of be detected by a programme of ield survey such vegetation that is encountered in the desert. Whilst as that described above. Indeed, as can be seen in this is worrying from an environmental perspective, the image, a dense scatter of archaeological inds it actually helps the archaeologist to ind and came to light in the Kadhima study area, many of record sites in a way that would not be possible if which are almost certainly the remains of ancient the landscape were covered in thick woodland and Bedouin activity. bedouin pasTuring camels (Flickr user Brooklyn Museum under a Creative Commons licence. Lantern Slide Collection) 19 Beyond Field Survey to Excavation Once ield survey has been used to map the distribution of ancient sites across the landscape, archaeologists turn to different techniques to investigate and record them. One method that is highly effective in Kuwait is kite aerial photography. By attaching a radio-controlled camera to a simple kite, archaeologists are able to take low-level, high- resolution photographs that show every stone in the remains of an old house or village. Such photographs (see illustration) can be useful in helping archaeologists to interpret the building remains: how big was KiTe aerial phoTograph of a modern camp siTe aT Kadhima it? what shape was it? how many (Yves Guichard) people lived in it? and other such questions. Another method of analysis might be to conduct a carefully controlled collection of ancient artefacts that are lying on the surface. The heavy delation of Kuwait’s deserts naturally makes this much easier. The illustration shows the results of one such analysis that was carried out at ‘Area ABC’ at Kadhima. Careful recording of different types of pottery, such as cooking wares, tablewares, storage wares, as well as glass and shell, can in this case help archaeologists to understand where different activities took place on the site. Sites are only excavated as a inal resort. Although excavation is the best-known technique available to the archaeologist, it is normally the one that is kept in reserve until there are no other options available because excavation is an extremely slow, painstaking and expensive operation. Even the excavation of a small Bedouin hut might take a team of archaeologists more than a month’s work. For this reason, careful thought has to be given to the excavation of a site and archaeologists must be sure that the information that will be gained will be worth the time and effort that will be invested. scaTTer of arTefacTs on The surface of an early islamic seTTlemenT 20 Kadhima Team member andy blair sTanding nexT To a scaTTer of Torpedo jar sherds on The sabKha near mughaira sHore-bAseD trADers of tHe pre-IslAMIc perIoD 5 A s explained above, prior to the rise of Islam, much of Arabia was in the sphere of inluence of the Sasanian Empire. Until now very little evidence has been found for human activity during this period from Kuwait to Oman. There are one or two discoveries in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and the site of Kush in Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE has also yielded evidence, but compared to the earlier Hellenistic or Parthian periods (330 BC–230 AD), the Sasanian period seems to have been a time of low population and limited activity. In the Kadhima area no secure evidence of pre- Sasanian activity has been found. This is despite the fact that there is solid evidence for activity during this period on a number of sites around Kuwait Bay, for example the Hellenistic fortress on a Torpedo jar siTe on The beach aT sabiyya. Failaka and Akkaz and Umm al-Naml islands close The sherds of an almosT compleTe Torpedo jar can to the modern Shuwaikh port along the south shore be seen scaTTered on The ground were all occupied at this time. Strangely enough, in the Kadhima area the Sasanian period is the irst for which evidence of sea journeys. Archaeologists call them ‘torpedo of human activity has been discovered. This jars’ due to their long, sleek shape ,but their evidence takes a strange form that has puzzled ancient name is unknown. Torpedo jars irst came archaeologists since it irst came to light about ten into use in the Parthian period, and they continued years ago. In order to explain, it is irst necessary to circulate in the Gulf and western Indian Ocean to describe what a ‘torpedo jar’ is. In the ancient until about the 10th century AD, well into the world a variety of different commodities was Islamic period. traded by boat, including oil (e.g. sesame and olive), wine, grain, and pastes of various kinds, During the survey of Kadhima archaeologists all of which needed to be contained in a strong came across dense scatters of broken torpedo jars container. The jars made for this purpose in Iraq along the beaches right next to the sea. Sometimes and other parts of the Middle East were long and these might be single broken jars, in other cases thin with narrow necks and pointed bases so that many hundreds. Mostly these sherds are almost they could be stacked eficiently in the hold of a the only inds on their sites. However, a few sherds boat. A lining of tar or pitch (bitumen) often made of pottery have been found that suggest that the them waterproof. These strangely shaped jars had sites were likely to be active during the Sasanian to be very strong in order to withstand the rigours period. a compleTe Torpedo jar being excavaTed in iraq (unknown origin) 22 Such ‘torpedo-jar sites’ have been found at locations all around the coast of northern Kuwait, including the northern shore of Failaka Island and even on Miskan Island. A number of these sites have been excavated Sabiyya by archaeologists trying to understand what, Kadhima exactly, people were doing there. How might we interpret these sites? What ancient activity could have led to the creation Failaka of dense piles of broken Iraqi torpedo jars on the beaches of northern Kuwait? There are various possible answers to this question. One is that, during the Sasanian period, seafaring Kuwait City traders made their way south from the cities of Iraq with torpedo jars full of, say, sesame oil, a key commodity in ancient times which they traded with Bedouin who camped on the 0 150km shore at certain times of the year speciically so that they could participate in that trade. These Bedouin would have brought with them map showing The disTribuTion of Torpedo jar siTes around commodities from the Arabian interior, such KuwaiT bay as animal skins and dairy products, honey, excavaTion aT one of The Torpedo jar siTes near sabiyya showing sherds of Torpedo jars in The upper levels of The excavaTion 23 Mahyawa, a sauce ThaT is made from sea fish a marKeT sTall holder in KuwaiT suq selling dried sea ThaT is ThaT is made in bahrain and is sTill fish of The same Type ThaT may have been Traded in ancienT popular in The gulf Today Times minerals and possibly even incense that had been made in the Kuwait area. The most likely such traded across Arabia from one merchant to the product would be something related to sea ish, next. But, having obtained the Iraqi sesame oil, something that was not easily available to the the Bedouin would have wanted to transport it residents of the big riverine cities of southern back into the interior of Arabia on camels so that Mesopotamia and which would have fetched a they could trade it against other commodities. The high price in those markets. Saltwater ish is the problem is that, whilst torpedo jars are perfectly most obvious such commodity. Large numbers designed for transport in the hold of a ship, they of small ish are easily caught in nets by shore- are very badly designed for transportation by based ishermen in the shallow waters of Kuwait camel. They are heavy, bulky and fragile, and Bay. They can then be dried on the shore and would be too much of a burden for even the packed dry or processed into a strong-tasting largest camel. Any sensible camel trader would ish sauce. A version of this same sauce is have decanted the sesame oil into animal skins, manufactured in Bahrain to this day. It is known as which are much lighter, more lexible and are less mahyawa and is still available for purchase in the likely to break if accidentally knocked. The empty suq in Kuwait City, where it is used to lavour foods, torpedo jars would have been left on the beach especially soups. as rubbish whilst the traders took off on their long journey into the interior. One explanation of the So it seems likely that the torpedo jar sites torpedo-jar sites might therefore be that they are evidence of Mesopotamian traders making result from exactly this type of activity that took their way to Kuwait to trade with Bedouin place around 1500 years ago on the Kuwaiti and shore-based ishermen in order to carry shores. Arabian products back to the cities of Sasanian Mesopotamia. Another possibility is that the traders who transported the torpedo jars south to Kuwait from This is the irst stage in the story of how the the places where they were manufactured brought coast of Kadhima developed through the early them in order to bring back products that were Islamic period. 24 general view of Trenches in area e excAvAtIon of stone Huts of tHe eArly IslAMIc perIoD 6 In the 2010 season the Kadhima archaeological team selected for excavation an area labelled ‘Area E’ which is close to the place that bears the modern name ‘Kadhima’. Here on the surface Sultan al-Duwish had found the walls of a number of small stone huts surrounded by a scatter of discarded pottery sherds and other inds from the 8th century. These houses were selected for excavation because they seem typical of those that came into use along this stretch of coastline quite suddenly during the later 7th and 8th centuries AD. A number of settlements made up of small clusters of such huts have been found all along the coast as far north as Sabiyya. In most cases these are close to a well, and the larger examples are deflaTed sTone house aT area e before excavaTion spaced about 30 kilometres from each other, which is about the distance a camel caravan can travel in one day. This might indicate that the larger settlements were way-stations (or marhala in Arabic) which provided water, night shelter, food and protection each day for travellers and traders using the coastal road. Archaeologists excavated Area E in order to answer two questions. Firstly, they wanted to see what evidence there might be for who lived in the houses and what they did there. Secondly, they wanted to get a more exact idea of the dates at which the houses were occupied, when they were built and when they were abandoned. Archaeological excavation is a slow and exacting process. It is more than simply digging holes to see what is buried underground. The digging has to be carefully controlled, and a detailed record has to be made of everything, including the colour and composition of the soil. sTone huT in ras al-Khaimah, uae Photographs are taken, drawings are made and (From W. Dostal. 1983. The Traditional Architecture of Ras al-Khaimah (North)) depths are carefully measured with electronic measuring devices so that archaeologists can use the evidence to understand who lived at the site The pit was then lined with a stone wall which was and the activites of daily life. built up somewhat higher than the level of the ground using stones held together with clay mortar. The ‘Area E’ Huts The huts were probably then roofed using wood, branches or date-palm fronds which have now of Excavation quickly made clear that the Area course disappeared, leaving no trace. Finally the E settlement consisted of seven or eight small, loors of some of the huts were paved with rough rounded stone-walled huts arranged in a single stone cobbles. line. Some of the huts are circular and some are square with rounded corners. They are This type of simple architecture is known from all irregularly shaped; most measure about 3 more recent times from other parts of Eastern metres across but one, (E5), is larger, measuring Arabia. The photograph above shows an example 4.75 metres across. It seems that the huts were from Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates constructed by irst digging a wide pit, 50 cm which gives an idea of what the Area E huts might deep and a little larger than the size of the hut. have looked like when they were in use. 26 excavaTion in progress in area e The huts themselves probably served only for which was also the irst to be built, contained a sleeping and sheltering from bad weather as dense scatter of early Islamic glass vessel sherds, they are too small to have accommodated much more than might be expected in such a simple else. Many of the daily activities of the families residence as glass was a relatively who lived in them, such as cooking, eating and expensive commodity at that working, would probably have taken place time.This strange occurrence outside in the spaces around the huts and in is probably because the small wooden shelters built in between them. The occupants of Area E fragments of pottery, shell, and animal bone traded with travellers scattered outside the walls provide evidence of who passed along the this. One can also see the remains of ireplaces, coastal road. A bronze as well as holes where wooden posts would once coin of the Umayyad have stood supporting lean-to wooden roofs. caliph Hisham supports this conclusion. This coin A spindle whorl or loom weight was also was minted in the city found in one of the huts, indicating that spinning of Wasit in Iraq, and or weaving of wool must have taken place at the was found on the surface settlement. by Sultan al-Duwish. It was minted in 123 AH, or Although the small size of the huts might suggest 740/741 AD, and helps to that the people who lived at Area E lived quite indicate the date when the settlement simple lives, some of the artefacts found show was occupied. that they were in touch with the wider world. They had access to some luxury, imported goods such The colourful blue-glazed pottery that the Area as glazed pottery and good-quality blown glass E people used for eating, drinking and serving that would have been manufactured in nearby food is further conirmation that they lived during Iraq, carved soft stone probably imported from the later 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. This pottery is the Hijaz, and even to goods brought by sea well known from other archaeological sites, both in from India. In fact the largest of the huts (E5), Arabia and in Iraq. 27 sTrucTures 8, 5, 6 afTer excavaTion sTrucTure 5 during excavaTion 28 About 300 metres to the north of Area E, Muslim community who lived hard and simple lives archaeologists found a small graveyard containing in small cramped huts. We don’t know exactly about 76 Islamic graves that probably served how they made their living – presumably they Area E and other settlements nearby. Although it is kept some goats and collected shellish amongst dificult to calculate population with any certainty, other things – but we can see that they did engage the number of graves probably indicates that in trade, either with the overland caravans that about 80 people lived in this area during the 8th passed up and down the coast, or by boat through century. Just as importantly, the cemetery conirms access to the nearby sea. A question that still that the occupants of the Area E huts were Muslims, remains to be answered, however, is why these as they followed Islamic burial customs, such as communities suddenly appeared in the 7th/8th orientation towards Mecca. century, and why they suddenly disappeared again in the early 9th century AD, about 150 years later. Summing up the evidence, the picture that the No clues to the answer were found at Area E, so the evidence from Area E gives us is of a small, poor team continued the investigation elsewhere. sTrucTure 8 wiTh an inTernal sTone pavemenT view of grave in cemeTery (area g) tHe fIrst settleMents of tHe eArly IslAMIc perIoD 7 S tructures similar to those at Area E were also found at a place called Mughaira, an important archaeological site north of Kuwait Bay near cliff below the site, a large well still known to local Bedouin is likely to have served the occupants of the early Islamic site more than 1200 years ago. Sabiyya. Here, instead of a single row of huts, ield survey discovered numerous small clusters of Mughaira presents archaeologists with a more than 40 structures spread over a large area different set of problems to Area E. Because the measuring 800 metres by 300 metres. Mughaira site is so extensive, it is obviously impossible to occupies a spectacular location, being situated excavate it all. At the same time, it is necessary on a lat ridge on top of a high cliff overlooking to map the location of all the structures in order the salt-lats. The salt lat would probably have to understand how the site was laid out and been a tidal bay at the time the site was occupied, organised. Most of the structures are clearly visible and would have given good access to the sea for on the surface where we can see the stones of ishermen and traders. Nearby, at the foot of the collapsed walls lying in the sand. 30 Archaeologists therefore decided to map the site using the unusual device of a lying camera attached to a kite. In this windy area a large kite can easily lift the weight of a small, high-resolution digital camera. The camera can be lown over the site at a much lower height than would be safe for an aeroplane, and a mosaic of high-resolution photographs can be taken to record the location of every single stone on the surface. 31 composiTe KiTe aerial image of mughaira showing early islamic buildings m The impressive results have allowed In the photograph archaeologists are seen archaeologists to draw up a detailed and accurate excavating the occupation levels of the structure. map of the surface inds at Mughaira, including These are the levels of earth that formed slowly all the stone structures as well as other features whilst the building was in use. Such levels often such as ovens and the remains of Bedouin camp contain important and very delicate information sites. A complete map of the site makes it possible about how the building was used. In this case to understand its organisation as well as to make they show evidence of two distinct phases of use, a more informed choice about which structures to suggesting that the original owners abandoned excavate. the structure before it was re-occupied some years later, either by the same people or by others. In As this book is being written, in January the intervening period, layers of wind-blown sand 2013, excavation at Mughaira is underway on had accumulated on the loor of the structure. the irst of these structures, known as LC233.22 (all archaeological sites have to have an oficial registration number, of course!). The structure is built in a manner almost identical to the huts of Area E: it is dug into the ground and lined with stone walling. But the size of the structure is quite different; it consists of a large rectangular room measuring 4 metres by 4.75 metres with additional rectangular structures attached on either side. A dense scatter of pottery sherds, shells and small hearths around the front of the building shows very clearly how the occupants of the structure used that area for cooking and eating and how they threw their rubbish on the ground immediately outside their house. At a later date, the main room of the structure was divided into two by the construction of a stone wall of a different, cruder construction to the original walls. 32 mughaira Trench 49 afTer excavaTion 33 34 m inTerpreTive plan of a parT of mughaira showing The buildings visible on The surface Pottery, glass and other inds from the site is likely to have resulted from a population that indicate a date of occupation in the 8th century was still semi-nomadic or which had just ceased AD, at roughly the same time that Area E was to be nomadic, and so was for the irst time living occupied. in permanent, built structures rather than tents. This would explain why they are arranged on the So far, the evidence from Mughaira suggests ground in the way that Bedouin tents are normally that the lives of the people who lived there arranged. were similar to those of the occupants of Area E. One key difference was the overall size of The evidence from Mughaira therefore suggests the settlement. More than 40 houses have been that the 8th century was a period during which identiied at Mughaira compared to the seven or Kadhima society was in transition, in the process eight at Area E. Is it possible that Mughaira was of giving up its Bedouin roots and becoming a village, or even a town? Not really, as there is sedentary. Understanding that this change took nothing at the site but individual houses. There is no place helps us to answer the question of why evidence of streets, walls or other public buildings there is hardly any archaeological evidence that one would expect to see in a town. for human activity in the Kadhima area before this time. In previous centuries the population It is also noticeable from the plan of the site had been nomadic, making it almost impossible drawn up from the kite photographs that the site for archaeologists to detect them. Once they is made up of numerous clusters of buildings each settled down the population began to leave separated by wide areas of open ground. This archaeological traces such as houses and pottery, resembles the way in which the tents of a Bedouin and these are what the archaeologists have found. camp are arranged more than it does the way that This also perhaps helps to explain what must have houses are arranged in a town or village. This fact, happened in the 9th century when the settlements along with the simple design of the structures, has were all abandoned: the population reverted once led archaeologists to suggest that the settlement again to nomadism. A MercHAnt’s House? 8 The next stage in the development of the Mud bricks are bricks made out of sun- Kadhima coastline involves a marked change dried mud. They are a typically Mesopotamian in the style of architecture and quality of life. construction material because they are cheap and Evidence for this change comes from excavations easily available in the alluvial plains of the Tigris at the site known as ‘Area ABC’, which is about and Euphrates where mud and water are plentiful. 300 metres to the north of Area E. But they are rare in Arabia where stone and wood have traditionally been used. They do have some The house that has been uncovered at Area advantages over stone and wood: they provide ABC is different from the stone huts that have good insulation from the heat and they offer added been found at Area E and Mughaira in four stability and allow people to build much higher walls. ways: 1) it is constructed from mud bricks, 2) it is The deliberately rectangular shape of the ABC rectangular, 3) it has three rooms instead of one, house stands in marked contrast to the rounded or and 4) it is much bigger, measuring 8 metres by round-cornered Area E huts as does the house’s 5 metres which, together with a small side room, multi-roomed plan. This probably included a gives 45 square metres of loor space compared cooking area and two further rooms that could to the 7 square metres that is typical of the have been used for a variety of activities such as Area E stone huts. sleeping, entertaining, storage and eating. KiTe phoTograph of The house aT area abc, The lower phoTograph shows The ouTline of The walls 36 Although the house is larger and more complex in design, a lot of activities probably still took place outside the house under wooden, lean-to structures. These would have included some of the cooking and food preparation – as can be seen from the shallow hearths scratched into the surface of the ground. Within the house a small plinth was uncovered against the wall of one of the rooms. This was probably the location of a small hearth used for heating the room in winter. A part of the room was paved with stones, and it was possible to see that the interior wall that subdivided the house into two rooms was a later addition, demonstrating that the house had been in use long enough to have been adapted by its occupants. The increased size and sophistication of this house clearly represents a marked improvement in wealth and the standard of life of its occupants compared to those of Area E. But the fact that the design and construction are alien to local traditions seems to suggest a strong Mesopotamian inluence. Was this a house built perhaps by a trader from Basra who had settled here on the coast of Kadhima to trade with the local population? Or was it perhaps a house built by a local resident of Kadhima who had travelled to some of the towns of Iraq and had learned something of the different way of life there? That the occupant of the house was a merchant or trader is suggested by the high percentage of tradable goods such as ‘soft stone’ vessels, torpedo jars and Indian pottery. ‘Soft stone’ is the name for the stone that was commonly carved into bowls and cooking pots in parts of western or southern Arabia such 37 as the Hijaz, Yemen and Oman, from where it If we piece together the evidence from Area was exported by traders and pilgrims (more can ABC, it leads to the conclusion that we might be read about this in a later section of the book; be looking at the residence of a professional see page 51). Torpedo jars are jars used for merchant with strong links to the cities of Iraq who transporting liquid trade goods, such as cooking had set up here in Kadhima in order to be able to oils, by boat and are also discussed elsewhere trade with the local Bedouin. In doing this he had in this book (page 21). They were used in pre- become notably wealthier than the other residents Islamic times and they continued to be used in the of the area, and it may be that his activities took Islamic period. Sherds of Indian pottery, which are over from the less professional trading activities of easily identiiable by their soft red or black clay the Area E and Mughaira residents. and shiny, micaceous temper, are clear evidence of contact with maritime traders from the Indian Perhaps initially, the occupants of the Area ABC subcontinent who plied their wares along the coasts house traded with their neighbours, the residents of Makran and the Gulf. The fact that all of these of Area E, but it seems that Area E was eventually types of inds are so abundant in the Area ABC abandoned leaving the Area ABC house as the house is good evidence for the occupation of its sole permanent dwelling in the locality. inhabitants. If the structures that have so far been That the residents of the ABC house were excavated are typical of life along the Kadhima materially much better off than the residents of coast, then we can suggest that a story is beginning Area E and Mughaira is suggested by the fact to emerge of how the residents of Kadhima that ive times more pottery has been found became increasingly engaged in trade as time there than at the other two sites. This abundance passed. As they did so, initially as Bedouin trading is obviously not direct evidence of wealth – with the torpedo-jar bearing merchants in the late one must always remember that most of the Sasanian period and inally as occupants of houses possessions of the inhabitants will not have like the ine, foreign-inluenced mud-brick house survived 1250 years being buried in the sand – at Area ABC, their lives were changing. Their lives but it gives us some measure of the comparative were being transformed by the increased wealth amount of possessions in the different and material culture that they were accumulating settlements. through trade. They were becoming increasingly sedentary and possibly even beginning to loose Some of the pottery from Area ABC is the their nomadic roots. typical polychrome glazed pottery of early 9th century Iraq. Although only a few sherds of this Of course, at present this is only a theory. have been found in the house, it clearly indicates There is still much work to do and more evidence is that occupation continued there 50 years or so needed to test and develop these ideas. However, later than at the Area E and Mughaira settlements. the theory makes sense as a story and it helps us However, it is possible that all of the structures to understand the way in which the lives of the were in use at the same time before the Area E people who lived along this coast might have and Mughaira huts were abandoned. changed during this important period in Arabia’s history. 38 KiTe phoTograph of well complex showing The camel-waTering Troughs around The well mr shehab shehab, direcTor of KuwaiT naTional museum, gives advice aT The beginning of The excavaTion of The Kadhima well A well for cAMel cArAvAns 9 I n Area ABC, close to the house that was described in the previous section, three or four stone circles could be seen on the ground that looked quite unusual. They appeared to be arranged around a low-lying circular area illed with sand. There was very little pottery on the ground around them, and they did not look at all like stone huts: they were too small and had an oval rather than the rounded or squared shape typical of stone huts. Close inspection of the surface provided no further clues as to what these structures actually were. Mystiied, archaeologists began to excavate in order to ind out what was going on. Slowly, as the sand was removed, it became clear that the low-lying depression in the centre of the structures was actually a circular, stone- lined well about 4.5 metres wide and 5.5 metres deep. The stones were held together with a clayey mortar down to about 4 metres deep, after which the well cut through a solid green clay that required no such support. A metre below this the water table was reached and a slightly brackish water began to seep into the excavated bottom of the well preventing further excavation. The water was quite drinkable, but not very palatable to our modern tastes. Some of the stones around the rim of the well had notches worn into them, these would have been caused by the constant friction of ropes rubbing over them as buckets of water were pulled up and let back down into the well. It is always nice to ind a well in Arabia. Somehow there is something magic about inding water in a desert, but it is especially poignant to ind a well that is so old and that has so much history behind it. Archaeological analysis of the well structure and the layers of earth that had accumulated around it showed that the well underwent a number of changes during the time it was in use. This is typical of any structure – people always modify things and archaeologists can identify such modiications. In this case, ive stone troughs had been constructed in a radial pattern around the well, with a small stone channel leading to each of them from the well. These can be seen very clearly on the kite photograph. an example of a sTone-by-sTone plan made in The field during excavaTion of The well 40 composiTe phoTograph of inTerior of well wall from inside The well (Compiled by Ludwig Fuchs with Ben Saunders) Each of the troughs is about 3 metres long and 3 metres wide. The photographs show that the trough walls were made of slabs of rock standing on end and the loors were lined with Basra cobble-sized stones. The sides of the troughs would only have been 40 cm or so high, just enough to contain enough water for animals to drink. The troughs may have been lined with clay to make them waterproof. Water would have been poured into them by camel herders standing at the edge of the well using a rope and a wooden crane to lift up bucket after bucket of water (the holes where the wooden posts once stood were found during the excavation). The buckets would have been emptied into the channels leading to the troughs, and once the troughs were illed, camels would have been led to them to drink. Hijaz / Yamama Bahrain But why were so many troughs necessary? The reason is that this well must have served the needs of large camel caravans 0 175km moving along the coastal trade route. In ancient and medieval times, traders travelled in caravans for safety and protection against robbery. Banding together meant that there were many merchants and their helpers around to deter raiders from attacking. If each merchant had travelled alone with only three or four camels, he would have been easy prey to any bandits waiting along the route. Merchants carried a great many very valuable goods such as spices, silks and other textiles, indigo and incense. These would have been temping pickings to desert bandits. Some of the larger caravans might have consisted of as many as 200 camels – possibly more in some cases. Such a caravan must have been a really impressive sight, a line of camels stretching for up to a kilometre along the coastal highway, each packed up with bundles of goods whilst merchants and camel herders walked alongside. (By kind permission The OK Travel ( http://theoktravel.com) 41 one of The well Troughs and channels Camels do not need to water every day, but when they have the chance they like to drink a large amount. Each camel is capable of drinking up to 40 litres of water at one go. For a large caravan that would mean up to 8,000 litres of water might be needed at each stop along the route. With only one trough at the well it would have taken many hours to provide such a large quantity of water, and the caravan would have been held up slowing its progress considerably. The lack of pottery around the well makes it dificult to be certain of the exact date when it was in use, but it seems likely that it was contemporary with the occupation of the Area E and Area ABC settlements. An interesting story is that a gold earring was found in amongst the stones lining the loor of one of the troughs. Although small, this earring would have been an important and valuable possession of one of the local girls who might have earned a living helping to pull buckets of water out of the well when a caravan passed through. Perhaps during her work, she brushed accidentally against the side of a camel and her earring was pulled out, falling into the dirty water. It is certain that she would have spent some time searching frantically in the mud at the bottom of the trough, but it seems she was unable to retrieve the valuable item. It must have been a heartbreaking loss for someone who probably did not possess much worldly wealth. It is quite a sad story, but it is one that brings vividly alive the drama of the camel caravans and their long journeys across the routes of Arabia. 42 landscape in The wadi al-baTin sHIqAyA AnD tHe wADI Al-bAtIn: A new pIlgrIMAge route 10 T here was a time, a few million years ago, when Arabia was a wet and rainy place. During that time three great rivers drained the rainwater Archaeological survey along the Wadi al-Batin has revealed quite a number of archaeological sites, some dating back as far as the Palaeolithic, towards the east: the Wadi al-Sahba, the Wadi a time over 10,000 years ago when humans were Dawasir and the Wadi al-Batin. The al-Sahba still hunters and gatherers. Amongst the more and Dawasir both drained the southern part of recent sites are a few that have yielded remains the peninsula and met the Gulf between modern from the Islamic period, such as Bahra Hussan, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the lower course of the the north of Kuwait, where pottery and buildings Dawasir now being buried by sand dunes. But the of the 8th century AD contemporary with Area course of the Wadi al-Batin is still clear. It drained E and Mughaira have been found. To the south, the northern part of Arabia and joined the close to the place where the modern borders of Euphrates close to modern Basra. Today its wide, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait all meet, is a place lat basin forms Kuwait’s western border with Iraq. named Shiqaya where a large and important archaeological site of the early Islamic period is Because of the course it follows and its lat, located inside the modern border zone. gentle landscape, the Wadi al-Batin forms an obvious route for those travelling from the cities of Shiqaya consists of a large expanse of southern Iraq down towards central and western archaeological mounding over 800 metres by Saudi Arabia, especially the Hijaz and holy cities 300 metres covered with pottery and other inds, of Mecca and Medina. including large amounts of debris from brick kilns. 44 In the middle of the site there is a 40 metre wide depression that is probably a brick-lined cistern. In one place the remains of a large, multi-roomed building over 35 metres wide with well-built, plastered walls can be clearly seen on the ground. This is too big to be a single house, it looks more like a large and quite signiicant oficial building. Without excavation it is impossible to know what it might have been, but one possibility is that it was a hostel designed to accommodate pilgrims who travelled along the ‘Tariq Basra’ pilgrimage route, which ran along the Wadi al-Batin. As mentioned fragmenTs of viTrified bricK Kiln lining from shiqaya earlier in this book, the Abbasid caliphs from the showing ThaT bricK manufacTure TooK place aT The siTe time of al-Saffah and al-Mansur in the middle of the 8th century set up way-stations provided with wells and cisterns along the pilgrimage routes to ease the journeys of the large numbers of pilgrims that made the hajj each year through this arid region. The pottery found at Shiqaya is different to that which has been found on the Kadhima sites along the coast. It consists of small, delicately shaped bowls and jugs designed for use as tableware. It is glazed, but unlike the simple plain blue or turquoise glaze wares of the 7th and 8th centuries that are found on the coastal sites. This pottery is decorated in striking polychrome greens, blues and yellows. These are the famous wares of the ‘Samarra horizon’, which are thought to have been inspired by imports of Chinese polychrome Tang wares to the Islamic world in the late 8th and early 9th centuries AD. ninTh cenTury samarra horizon poTTery from shiqaya 45 The Samarra horizon wares began to circulate widely in the Gulf region after about 835 AD, but not before. This allows archaeologists to date the occupation of Shiqaya to after this time, but just as importantly it allows them to show that the Kadhima sites along the coast – Area E and Mughaira – were both abandoned by that time. Whilst the house at Area ABC was abandoned very shortly afterwards as only a few examples of Samarra horizon pottery have been found there. At Shiqaya several hundreds of these sherds can be picked up on the surface in ten minutes. This presents archaeologists with an important question. Why was it that the coastal sites were all abandoned towards the end of the 8th or in the early 9th century, at almost exactly the same time that the large, sophisticated pilgrimage station was constructed at Shiqaya in the Wadi al-Batin? 46 One obvious possibility is that the construction of way- stations equipped with cisterns and wells along the Wadi al-Batin in the middle of the 8th century, such as Shiqaya, drew pilgrimage trafic away from the coastal route that ran through Kadhima. Previously, large sections of the Wadi al-Batin were known to have been quite dry, and this would certainly have presented large groups of travellers with real dificulties. It seems likely that many of them therefore chose to take the well-watered but two-day longer coastal route through Kadhima, thereby passing through sites such as Area E and Mughaira and bringing with them a livelihood for the people that lived in those places. This theory makes a lot of sense, and helps archaeologists to explain the decline of the Kadhima sites that had, by the late 8th century, been a feature of the coast for more than 100 years. However, it is not yet certain that this is the correct interpretation because it is known that many 8th century sites all along the coast of eastern Arabia – from Kuwait to Ras al-Khaimah – were abandoned at about the same time. As it is not possible that they were all affected by pilgrimage trafic in the way that the Kadhima sites were, it seems likely that there were other forces at play about which we are still unaware. These may have been economic, political or even climatic, but it will require more archaeological investigation and research before it is possible to be certain of that. The main building aT shiqaya pottery, MuslIM MercHAnts AnD InDIAn oceAn trADe 11 W hy do archaeologists take such a great interest in pottery? After all, pots and pans do not provide an obvious insight into the events of the past. The reason is quite simply that pottery is one of the few materials used by ancient and medieval people that survives once buried in the ground. Many equally important materials, such as, leather, basket ware, textiles and wood, all decay after a few years leaving practically no trace in the soil. Others, such as iron, bronze and glass do survive, but because they can be re-used they were often melted down and turned into new objects, leaving no trace of the originals for the archaeologist to ind. Pottery does not rot, and it cannot be melted down and re-used, so once it was broken it was generally thrown away and has remained unchanged in the ground waiting to be dug up by an archaeologist. Pottery is a very versatile material. It can be used to make everything from simple cooking pots to the most expensive tablewares. In some historical periods, pottery had a high level of aesthetic beauty, and the early Islamic period is certainly one of them. The 9th century especially was a time when polychrome glazed wares came into wide circulation, and Islamic potters became superb masters of their craft. Having been inspired by the new polychrome Tang glazed stonewares that began to be imported by sea from China in the late 8th and 9th centuries, the Muslim potters developed new techniques that formed the basis of Islamic and ultimately European ceramic craft for 1,000 years to come. samarra horizon sherds on display in The louvre museum, paris 48 But even before the advent of the ‘Samarra horizon’ wares, the Islamic potters of the 7th and 8th centuries were inheritors of a tradition of alkaline glaze wares of their own, a tradition that had been passed down from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Although the polychrome ‘Samarra horizon’ wares of the 9th century are certainly the best known amongst historians of Islamic art, the alkaline glazed wares that were in wide circulation in the Islamic world before them have a beauty and simplicity of their own. They are rarely appreciated by art historians, who know little of them and who prefer to focus on the more intricate later wares. But the deep aquamarine, turquoise and blue colouring and relief decoration represent a key period in the history of Islam. It is these turquoise alkaline glaze wares that are most commonly found on the early Islamic sites of Kadhima. The accompanying photographs show some examples of these wares, as well as how archaeologists attempt to subdivide them by colour and analyse their clays and interior colouring in an attempt to gain a more precise understanding of their chronology. 49 In addition to the glazed pottery, several other important wares circulated in the early Islamic world that are not as well known. One is ‘Eggshell ware’ a thin bodied, highly puriied white ware whose hard-ired, 2 mm-thick walls have the feel of eggshell. Such delicate, reined pottery must have been dificult to produce, and seems often to have been manufactured in a mould. It is quite common on the Kadhima sites, and has survived well in the harsh desert conditions, despite its apparent fragility. It has still not been possible to ind out if pottery was produced in Kadhima in the 8th century. Clays of suitable quality certainly exist in the area, buried deep below the sand, and it is quite possible that they were used. The other key ingredients, water and fuel, would also have been available, but so far no one has found proof of local manufacture. Torpedo jars were discussed earlier in this book (page 21). These are much less decorative examples of Islamic pottery designed to transport liquids. They are a type that began in Hellenistic or Parthian times (330 BC to 230 AD) and continued into the Islamic period as late as the 10th century AD without any major changes. They have hard- ired, sandy bodies that are waterproofed on the interior with bitumen or pitch lining. It is interesting to look at the distribution of these vessels around the western Indian Ocean; they are found in East Africa as far south as Tanzania and Kenya, and in southern India as far south as Kerala and Sri Lanka. They provide clear testimony to the growing maritime trade system of the early Islamic period that was slowly knitting the western Indian Ocean together into a region where Muslim merchants dominated throughout medieval times. Whilst most of the pottery discussed above was probably manufactured in Iraq, other wares identiied on the Kadhima sites were made in Iran and India. These are mostly coarse wares used for storage, transport and cooking, but they are again testimony to the maritime contacts that existed at this time. 50 It must always be remembered that pottery is only one of the many commodities that would have been traded, most of which have not survived on archaeological sites. Additional products included textiles, indigo, incense, spices, foodstuffs, and many others. Pottery is only the skeleton of the ancient trading systems; it is all that is left to us. We have to use our imagination and our knowledge based on written sources and anthropological evidence to reconstruct the full range of trade activities that went on in the past. The activities of the Muslim traders who sailed the Indian Ocean in these years are well known. There is evidence that they made their way to the shores of East Africa where their arrival brought goods and ideas, as well as aspects of Arabic language and the Islamic faith. The adventures of Sinbad the sailor are well known, and although they are obviously mostly fanciful, they do give an idea of the way in which trade was organised rim of a Torpedo jar wiTh blacK biTumen visible at this time, with individual merchants paying for passage for themselves and their bundles of wares on private boats along with other merchants. Such men carried goods across the seas and brought Kadhima and the shores of Arabia into contact with the rest of the world, but pottery is almost the only evidence that remains of their activities. imporTed indian sherds found in The gulf region tHe soft stone froM KADHIMA: Evidence for trade connections 12 and domestic activities Sterenn Le Maguer T he excavations at Kadhima have yielded 175 fragments of soft stone vessels, mostly from Area ABC in Kadhima but some has also been or black, from soapy to grainy, foliated or brittle. The common characteristic is that they are all very soft and easy to carve and it is this which made found during survey at Shiqaya. Although this soft stone an attractive commodity to ancient and material is much less common than pottery and medieval communities. glass, it is important for our understanding of the chronology, trading economy and the activities that Soft stone has been widely used and traded in took place at these sites because it can be linked the Middle East since before 2500 BC. Outcrops with sites on the western side of Arabia. are attested in the Zagros Mountains from Turkey to Iran, in Kerman and in Baluchistan, and in the The raw material: description Hajar Mountains of Oman. The main soft stone outcrops in the Arabian Peninsula are located in and outcrops the northern mountains of Yemen, along with the Soft stone is a generic term used to describe a Hijazi north-south mountain chain between the variety of metamorphic rocks made up of steatite Gulf of Aqaba and the Najd. Mining activity in (talc), chlorite, and combinations of both with the Islamic Period is suggested by manufacture various other minerals. As a raw material, soft and cut waste remains at archaeological sites and stone is available in a great variety of colours and by the fact that mines have been found near to textures, from light green to bluish grey, brownish occupation sites. sofT sTone ouTcrops in arabia and surrounding regions (Sterenn Le Maguer) 52 Soft stone trade during the Abbasid Period Soft stone production lourished during the Abbasid period, especially between the 9th and the 11th centuries. The archaeological evidence is based on the excavations of important sites like Aqaba in Jordan and Siraf and Susa in Iran, which all yielded soft stone material. Concerning Aqaba, most of the soft stone objects come from levels corresponding to the early Islamic period of the site, from 800-1000 AD, when this port of trade lourished. In Siraf, the soft stone objects come from the layers of the site dated between 825-1055 AD when the site reached its apogee. The occurrence of differenT Types of sofT sTone aT The Kadhima siTes Lastly, soft stone objects from Susa were found in the archaeological levels dated to between 810 (Sterenn Le Maguer) and 1000 AD. Finally, the medieval textual sources indicate Objects made from soft stone include cooking that soft stone vessels were valuable and were pots, straight-side bowls with a pair of hedge appreciated for their cooking properties. This handles, legged and cuboid incense-burners and is conirmed archeologically by the presence of star-shaped, multi-spouted and ‘boat-shaped’ many repair holes that show owners went to some lamps. These objects are all decorated with trouble to repair their soft stone vessels, even if incised lines, dots-in-circles, and other geometric they broke. They were able to repair them by incisions. drilling holes and tying the vessels together with The rise of the soft stone vessel trade is wire. linked to the shift of political power from Syria to Mesopotamia with the new Abbasid rulers in The soft stone found during 750 AD. As a result of the shift of the capital to excavations and surveys Baghdad and then to Samarra, pilgrimage trafic increased between Iraq and Mecca through the The mud-brick house in Area ABC at Kadhima Hijaz. Thus, the Darb al-Zubayda pilgrimage yielded more than half of the soft stone inds from route, one of the most important and famous of the project. On the other hand, Area E yielded these roads, ran close to soft stone outcrops at a less than 10% of the soft stone material, all of place called al-Rabadhah in Saudi Arabia. From which was found on the surface. The relative here soft stone vessels were probably taken to rarity of soft stone here might suggest an earlier Mecca and Medina where they would have been period of occupation than at Area ABC or that the sold to pilgrims and taken home as souvenirs of population there was poorer or that they were not their journey. so involved in trade. compleTe incense burner 53 Surface inds from Shiqaya in the Wadi al-Batin yielded a lot of soft stone material, indicating that occupation there might be contemporary to Area ABC, and that its population was heavily involved with the trade and pilgrimage route. Four types of soft stone have been identiied at Kadhima. The irst and most common is an evenly coloured bluish grey stone with ine crystallization. It was used in the production of all vessel types (cooking pots, bowls, and lamps) and represents about 86% of the vessels found. The second is a greenish grey foliated stone which is friable and certainly comes from different outcrops to the irst type. This stone is of lower quality, is less resistant to heat when used as a cooking pot, and is more dificult to carve because of its high friability. The fact that only about 13% of the vessels at Kadhima were made of this stone shows that it was much less popular than the irst one. The last two types are each represented by only one sherd each. Most of the fragments found at Kadhima probably come from straight-sided cooking pots with lat bases and simple rounded rims. This type of vessel is widely attested during a sTraighT-sided cooKing poT the early Islamic period and was used to prepare speciic types of dishes, as al-Warraq describes in his 10th century cookbook: Soft stone pots are the best for meat dishes. Another common use of soft stone was for The best porridges are made in tin-lined copper incense-burners which were used to burn aromatic pots. Earthenware pots and tin-lined pots are substances such as frankincense and myrrh. suitable for making judhabat [a type of bread They are important objects as they tell us about pudding oven-baked beneath a suspended joint customs and trade during the early Islamic period. of meat], and the best of oven-cooked dishes are Medieval texts report the importance of the cooked in soft stone pots. Condensed puddings are burning of incense during ceremonies. According to be cooked in brass cauldrons and beverages in soft stone cauldrons. The most suitable frying pans to al-Mas’udi in his Kitab Muruj al-Dhahab, the for fried fritters are brass ones and for frying caliph al-Ma’mun (813–833 AD) used to chair a ish, iron frying pans are used. Soft stone frying law conference every Thursday with lawyers and pans are to be used for meat dishes with sunny- learned men. After lunch, incense-burners were side-up eggs and lat omelets. Rounded soft stone presented so the guests could perfume themselves pots are the best for stir-fried dishes (quote taken before being presented to the caliph. from Nawal Nasrallah’s translation of al-Warraq’s cookbook, Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchen) A soft stone handle found on the surface at Area E is a part of one of these vessels. It It can be seen from these remarks how highly illustrates that the Kadhima population had a taste soft stone was rated for cooking at this time. for burning incense, perhaps in order to welcome Exactly this kind of soft stone vessel is still used guests. The incense probably originated from the today in Yemen to cook traditional meat dishes. south of the Arabian Peninsula – Oman and Yemen. incense burner handle made of sofT sTone from Kadhima 54 The homogeneity of soft stone types at Kadhima suggests that the vessels originated from only a few, very similar, sources. The site’s proximity to the hajj roads may suggest that these vessels were imported from mines in the Hijaz. Indeed, some outcrops and workshops are located on or very close to the Darb Zubayda, as mentioned above and probably made their way to Mecca and Medina where they were sold to pilgrims. The fact that people took trouble to repair their vessels demonstrates that they were valuable or had sentimental or religious importance. Like pottery, soft stone is an archaeological material that can help us to understand the date of occupation, as well as domestic and trading activities that took place at the Kadhima sites. sofT sTone fragmenT wiTh evidence of repair made wiTh iron wire glAss AnD otHer fInDs 13 I n addition to the pottery and soft stone, a number of other inds have come to light at the excavated and surveyed sites. The most common is glass. Glass was a luxurious material used as it is today for drinking glasses, perfume bottles and table ware, but not for windows. It came in a variety of colours and circulated widely in the area; and it seems to have been a popular trade commodity. It was probably manufactured in Iraq, where archaeologists have discovered a number of furnaces. Of course glass is quite fragile, and vessels must frequently have broken in transit, but as one can recycle glass, it is possible that some of the many broken fragments from Kadhima are actually ‘cullet’, or broken glass that was traded so that it could be melted down and re-used. As mentioned above, the largest stone hut at Area E, hut E5, contained large numbers of glass fragments scattered around both inside and outside. This probably means that the occupants of this house were involved in trading glass or glass cullet, although it is also possible they used the glass in their daily lives. Large quantities of glass have come to light. For example in the irst season of survey work 584 fragments of glass were found, 94% of which was found close to one of the settlement sites. The large majority of this glass is light green, and is considered to be early Islamic in date. 56 Other inds that have come to light are loom weights and ishing net weights made of stone or of old pot sherds (such as the one on the right) that have been carved and drilled. At Mughaira a number of quern stones – stones used for grinding grain into lour – were found in and around the house that was excavated there, indicating that the occupants of the house processed their own grain. This suggests that they also grew their own grain, although this is not certain. Other inds include lumps of bitumen that were probably used as fuel or for waterprooing baskets. A few fragments of metal have come to light, too. These are mostly iron, but they are very badly preserved due to the corrosive nature of the soil. circular quern sTone wiTh a cenTral pivoT hole found in an excavaTed house aT mughaira brIngIng tHIngs togetHer… 14 T he most important contribution of the Kadhima ieldwork has been to sketch out a preliminary ‘history’ of the occupation of Kadhima in the early can’t be sure that the inhabitants spent the whole year in these settlements, but they had certainly begun to accumulate such material possessions Islamic period. This is not a history in the traditional as imported pottery, glass and soft stone. They sense, because it is based almost entirely on probably acquired them by trading with merchants archaeological evidence rather than on written and pilgrims who passed through the area. Many sources. Nonetheless, it is possible to set out a clear of these settlements were located close to wells and convincing picture of how the area developed which would have provided water for travellers. through time. This has been achieved by dividing An example of such a well has been excavated the past into clearly deined periods, each of at Area ABC, and others are known close to which has its own distinctive pattern of material Mughaira. culture. By comparing one period with the next, it is possible to see how people’s lives changed. In Period 4. Later in the 8th century at least some ways this is quite a crude method of writing one rectangular mud-brick house was built close history, as it certainly lacks the details of speciic to the Area ABC well whilst some of the earlier events and the names of important individuals that settlements seem to have dwindled and eventually are typical of more traditional histories. But at the been abandoned. The mud-brick house had two same time, it gives us an insight into some of the rooms and represents a completely new form of underlying changes in society and the economy architecture that was previously unknown along that are sometimes missing from traditional this coast. To judge by the amount of pottery and histories. traded goods that they used, the occupants of this house were much wealthier than any one else – Let us reiterate very briely the historical they had up to ive times as many possessions as framework that has been established. It can be the occupants of Area E had ever needed. The divided into six distinct periods: style in which the house is built suggests foreign inluence, possibly indicating that it was built by Period 1. No archaeological evidence has a settler from abroad or by someone who had come to light along the Kadhima coastline for any travelled abroad. settlement earlier than about the 5th or 6th century AD. This is probably because the population that Period 5. By the mid 9th century all of the lived here during this time was entirely nomadic settlements along the coast were abandoned and left very few traces that can be found by including, eventually, the mud-brick house at Area archaeologists. ABC. The reason for this is not known, but if the Period 2. In about the 5th or 6th centuries AD settlements along the coast had been making large numbers of Mesopotamian torpedo jars their living by serving the pilgrimage trafic that began to be deposited in piles along the beaches passed through, the construction of the large of the northern part of Kuwait Bay in the area of site at Shiqaya in the Wadi al-Batin, with its the Sabiyya peninsula. These deposits probably large wells and comfortable buildings, may have resulted from contacts between nomadic groups drawn travellers away from the coastal road and who were settled on the coast for part of the undermined their livelihoods. The construction of year and Mesopotamian merchants who came by Shiqaya was probably funded by the Abbasid boat to trade with them. They probably traded government in Baghdad, and may have been commodities such as cooking oil, wine, and animal speciically intended to house pilgrims and and ish products. merchant travellers in order to make their journeys easier. Period 3. In the later 7th or early 8th centuries it seems that some of these nomadic groups began Period 6. By the 10th century AD Shiqaya had to settle down more permanently instead of also been abandoned, and it is impossible to ind leaving the coast for part of the year and moving more than one or two isolated sherds of pottery with their animals into the interior. A number of that testify to activity anywhere in the whole of scattered settlements have been found consisting Kuwait for the next 700 years. It seems likely that of small stone huts such as Area E and Mughaira. much of the population reverted once more to a Rather than being laid out like villages, they nomadic existence and again has left very little are arranged in the same way that the Bedouin trace, although there are certainly archaeological tend to arrange their campsites with wide gaps sites still to be discovered that may one day between clusters of permanent stone huts. We change this view. 58 Nomads, sedentary life and trade A theme that underlies much of the story that has been set out in this book is that of the luctuation between a nomadic and a sedentary existence. The archaeological evidence clearly suggests that for a relatively brief period of 100 to 150 years in the 7th and 8th centuries, the opportunity to engage in trade with merchants and pilgrims encouraged some of the Bedouin in the Kadhima area to settle down and live in permanent huts rather than tents as they began to accumulate signiicant amounts of material wealth that would probably have made a nomadic existence quite dificult as well as perhaps less attractive. The Future In the coming years, archaeological research will continue into the Islamic period of Kuwait , and new survey and excavations will bring to light new evidence that will give ever clearer insights into the history of the area. 59 Acknowledgements The Durham University team would like to thank the National Council for Culture Arts and Letters of Kuwait who commissioned and inanced this research, especially Mr Ali Alyouha, Secretary General, and Mr Shehab A. Shehab, Director of the National Museum. They would also like to thank Mr Sultan al-Duwish and Mr Mustafa Ansari of the National Museum for their friendship and support and Mr Faisal Sa’ad al-Owtaibi and Mr Muhammad Nazal al-Azmi for their help with the practicalities of the site organisation at Kadhima. The British Council (Kuwait) and Mr Andrew Glass its director kindly provided some extra inancial support for the team. Finally the team would like to thank Mr Ahmed Almutairi who managed the Kadhima Cultural Centre in Jahra where the team lived; he and all of his staff are owed a big debt of thanks. Dr Brian Ulrich kindly read a irst draft of this book and corrected many errors whilst Dr Alejandra Gutiérrez kindly designed the layout under a very tight deadline. Thanks to all those who have worked so hard on the Kadhima project over the past four years. The Kadhima Team 2012/2013. 60 e diTor : d ereK K enneT a erial phoTograph inTerpreTaTions : a ndy b lair g raphic cuT ouTs : l udwig f uchs K iTe p hoTographs : m arK w oolsTon -h oushold T ypeseTTing : a lejandra g uTiérrez © n aTional c ouncil for c ulTure , a rTs and l eTTers of The s TaTe of K uwaiT in cooperaTion wiTh d urham u niversiTy 2013 ISBN: 978-99906-0406-1 61