trench. A 3 · 4 m trench was therefore opened in
2004 in order to locate this floor and to measure its
level.
Underneath the modern surface at level 1.20 was
a layer of fine sterile sand, interpreted as fill in a
pit. Approximately 1 m below the modern surface,
this pit cuts a thick black powdery layer of ashes
containing sherds dated to Temple IIb (12). In the
northern part of the trench both these layers were
cut by the 1960 trench, and part of this refilled
trench was emptied by machine in 2004. At the
bottom of the almost 5 m-deep excavation, the
subsoil underneath the channel was exposed at
level 5.98. The walls of the channel were c. 60 cm
apart, built of uncut stones and covered with large
stone slabs. The floor of the channel was not made
of stone, as in the section of the same channel
made a few metres to the north in 1961/62.
Instead, a c. 20 cm-thick layer of moist clay,
between level 5.98 and 5.78, marked the floor.
Above the clay layer the channel had an inner
height of c. 1.30 cm, i.e. the same height as the
channel a few metres further north, and it was
filled with thin horizontal layers of sand. The
walls of the deep trench were too unstable to
allow the section to be drawn.
Trench 5
Approximately 16 m south of trench 7, the channel
was again uncovered in a 5 · 3 m trench orientated
east-west. The south section of trench 5 is seen in
Figure 10. The walls of the channel were built of
uncut stones, 15 · 30 cm across, laid in clay and
covered by large stone slabs, 0.6 m · 1 m and
c. 25 cm thick, tightened with plaster (Fig. 11).
The channel is constructed in a narrow pit which
cuts layers 25–30 (Fig. 10). The pit was back-filled
again with layers 10–14 and thereupon accumu-
lated a thick layer (layer 9) of dark grey, powdery
ash with many potsherds datable to Temple IIb
(Fig. 12) and a grinding-slab (Fig. 13). The layer
also contained small chippings of oolitic limestone,
remains from the final shaping of the temple
ashlars (13). In the southwest corner of the trench
layer 9 was disturbed by a sandy pit, layers 7–8,
which contained fragments of two Islamic pots
with some resemblance to shapes found in the
Early Islamic deposit in the Barbar well (Fig. 14)
(14).
Four roof stones were exposed, but to the north,
one was missing, and the special circumstances of
this area are documented in the north section
(Fig. 15). The same general picture of construction
and covering of the channel is seen as in Figure 10,
but after the deposition of layer 5 (¼ layer 9 in
Fig. 5.
Pottery found in first sounding of southeast channel.
Mesopotamia
BC Failaka
Barbar
Temples
Qala`at
al-Bahrain
Old Babylonian 1700 –
3A
1800 –
2B
ARU
Isin-Larsa
1900 –
IIc
2A
III? NE-Temple
ARP
2000 –
1
IIb
Ur III
IIa
2100 –
b
Ia
Late Akkadian
2200 –
IIb
IIa
Ib
Ia
Fig. 6.
Chronological chart for Barbar Temples I–III and the Northeast
Temple.
F. HØJLUND ET AL.
110
Fig. 10) a shaft was dug through this layer down to
the channel. This shaft was noted already at level
2.25 when the trench was being excavated. The shaft
was later filled up with layers 15ff.
After the roof slabs and the west wall of the
channel had been removed, a north-south section
was dug through the layers deposited inside the
structure (Fig. 16). The floor of the channel consis-
ted of two layers of clay 7–8 (¼ layers 22–23 in
the south section, Fig. 10) sloping slightly from
north (level 5.60) to south (level 5.64). The clay
was homogeneous, fine, moist and very plastic,
with no signs of layering. In short nothing indica-
ted that this clay was deposited by water dur-
ing the use of the channel, and it is therefore
interpreted as an attempt to produce a waterproof
floor. Layer 6 is interpreted as deposited by water
on the floor.
In the northern part of the section is a disturbance
of layers 6–8, filled with layers 9 and 10, and this
disturbance should probably be related to the shaft
described above, which reached the channel exactly
at this location. Layers 1–5 must then be even later
layers.
Fig. 7.
Southeast channel in second sounding, from the north, after removal of the northern wall (2004).
BARBAR TEMPLE, BAHRAIN
111
Also in the stretch of channel uncovered in the
north trench opened in 1961/62, a stone was missing
in the roof, considered to allow for cleaning (15) and
in the proximate section 12 it is noted that layer 26
cuts through the dark powdery (ashy) layer 21 — a
good parallel to the circumstances in Figure 15.
Similarly, a sand-filled pit cutting the dark ashy
layer datable to Temple IIb was noted in trench 7.
Perhaps we have here evidence of three access-holes
with an internal distance of 15–16 m. The fact that
these possible cleaning-shafts do not contain dark
ashes indicates that they postdate the use of the
Eastern Court of Temple II.
Trench 6
The continuation of the channel was located 7 m to
the south in a 15 m long and 65 cm wide, east-west
oriented trench, dug by machine. The top of the roof
stone was measured to level 4.55. In the northern
section of the trench a narrow, hollow space was
Fig. 8.
Section in second sounding of the southeast channel. 1: roof-
stone. 2: uncut stones laid in yellowish-brown clay. 3: limestone
ashlars. 4: cavity. 5: greyish-brown clayey sand. 6: yellowish-
brown clayey sand. 7: flakes of yellowish calcareous material.
8
: yellowish-brown clayey sand. 9: dark brown clayey sand.
10
: yellowish grey sand. 11: greyish-brown clayey sand with
some bitumen. 12: dark brown clay. 13: yellowish-grey sand.
14
: dark yellowish-grey sand. 15: greenish-yellow sand, subsoil.
Fig. 9.
Elevation of east wall of the southeast channel built in bond with
the pool chamber wall. 1: floor in channel. 2: ‘threshold’ between
channel and pool chamber. 3: hole cut in wall, for securing
sluice-gate? 4: roof of channel. 5: threshold between east room
and west room in pool chamber.
Fig. 10.
South section through channel in trench 5. 1: light grey to grey-
brown sand with scattered small stones and plaster rubble. 2:
dark grey-brown sand with scattered small stones and plaster
fragments. 3: as 1. 4: grey to grey-brown sand with scattered
small stones and plaster fragments. 5: light grey to light grey-
brown sand. 6: sterile light brown sand. 7: sterile light brown
sand with scattered lumps of dark grey-brown sand. 8: dark
grey-brown sand. 9: dark grey, powdery ash with small oolitic
limestone chippings and potsherds. 10: grey to light grey-brown
sand with lumps of compressed sand. 11: grey to light grey-
brown sand. 12: horizontal layers, 5–8 cm thick, of brown and
dark grey-brown clayey sand. 13: dark grey to black clayey sand.
14
: brown to light grey sand. 15: fine light grey-brown sand. 16A:
uncut stones, 15–30 cm across, laid in clay. 16B: roof-stone. 17:
cavity. 18: many thin layers of sand. 19: many thin layers of
clayey sand, darker than 18. 20: layers of grey-brown sand. 21:
dark grey-brown sandy clay ¼ layer 6 in Fig. 16. 22: grey
clay ¼ layer 7 in Fig. 16. 23: dark grey clay with small pieces
of charcoal ¼ layer 8 in Fig. 16. 24: fine light grey-brown sand.
25
: sterile, light yellow sand, subsoil. 26: fine, light grey-brown
sand. 27: light grey to light grey-brown sand. 28: dark brown
clayey sand. 29: plaster. 30: grey-brown to brown clayey sand.
F. HØJLUND ET AL.
112
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