In the funerary rituals of death we can sometimes learn more about a past culture and its traditions than from the objects that survive from their daily lives.
Take the ancient graves of Bahrain, home to the powerful Dilmun civilisation that controlled Arabian Gulf trading routes for many centuries and known to the ancient Greeks as Tylos.
Here, figurines of “wailing women” or mourners were found buried with the deceased. Dating from the middle Tylos period, or first century BC, is one such figurine, 26 centimetres high and six centimetres wide. It is crudely made of plaster, painted like a doll, and with an expressive face and colourful dress that captures the fashions of the time. Like other figurines discovered, she is dressed in a long chiton pulled in at the waist, hands clinging to her long dark hair in a gesture of profound lament. Other grave goods feature a dishevelled female figure with the mourner pulling her hair.
The meticulous care given to the deceased and the variety of items buried with them reveal that past civilisations often believed in renewed life after death and put strong emphasis on it.
In addition to the female figurines, many types of pottery were buried along with the dead, as well as precious adornments such as fine jewellery, a trend reflected in Hellenistic cultures.
One magnificent piece that has survived is a pair of earrings with rattles, found in Bahrain’s Shakhura Necropolis, and made between the end of the second century BC and the first century AD, or the Early and Middle Tyros period. They feature the theme of Eros riding a goat, popular in the Hellenistic world from the third century BC onwards. Exceptionally crafted out of gold and precious stones, the details of the design show the meticulous care taken over its creation – from the fur of the goat to the wings of Eros.
Original article by Rym Ghazal
Continue reading at The National:
Learning about life from death: Discoveries from the Dilmun graves in Bahrain
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