27 January 2015
Bahrain Site Museum Lecture
“The Oriental Pearl of the Maritime Trade”'
Qal’at al Bahrain Site Museum in cooperation with the French Embassy in Bahrain and the French research Centre for Archaeology and Social Sciences in the Arabian Peninsula (CEFAS, Jeddah) organized a lecture on the pearl trade in the Gulf by Dr. Anie Montigny on 27th January 2015 at the Museum Lecture Hall. Dr Montigny, who is a published anthropologist as well as an assistant professor in anthropology at the French National Museum of Natural History and also a research project manager at the Arab World Institute and Museum of Paris, explored the evolution of the oriental pearl in maritime commerce and its impact on world economies.
Mr. Dominique Chastres, the Co-operation and Cultural Action Service (SCAC) at the embassy, expressed his gratitude and appreciation to Bahrain’s Fort Site Museum officials for hosting and organizing this lecture, stressing the importance of such cultural events in raising the public awareness about Bahrain’s cultural heritage.
Dr. Montigny explored in her lecture the history of maritime trade routes, which passed by Bahrain to reach India, China, and the rest of the world. Dr. Montigny also discussed pearl commerce while pointing out the many difficulties she encountered with regard to pearling data and information in the region in comparison to the other pearl trade routes.
She also explained the relationships between pearl merchants, tools used to extract them, diving, and final destination ports. Dr. Montigny argued that Orient Pearls, also often called Bahraini Pearls, have been prized for their beauty and rarity for more than four thousand years. Natural gulf pearls are among the finest in the world and are still being found today in the many countries that surround the gulf such as Bahrain. This led to the development of economic relations between the Gulf region and the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
