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The exhibition “From Tylos to Bahrain: An Archaeological Journey around the Kingdom of Bahrain” opened its doors yesterday evening, Wednesday, October 5, 2022, at the Louvre Museum in the French capital, Paris. Art historian and curator, Mrs. the Director of the Louvre Museum, attended the event, as well as H.E Shaikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Arab Regional Center of the World Heritage and His Excellency Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. Representatives from UNESCO and the French Ministry of Culture, along with a number of French public and private cultural sector officials and media persons were also present.

In a statement commenting on this important cultural event, His Excellency Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said: “Studying and understanding the history of the Kingdom of Bahrain, which extends for more than four thousand years, has contributed to drawing the bigger picture about the history of the region. Artefacts that were discovered during the past decades are considered the primary historical and scientific platform to decipher the nature of relations between civilizations spreading from the Indus Valley to Mesopotamia.” He added, “Therefore, this international exhibition, with all its rare artifacts, tells the story of many civilizations that passed through Bahrain, from Dilmun and Tylos, and its commercial, political and cultural relations with its regional and global surrounding milieu.”

His Excellency also said that the success to organize and open this of this exhibition is due to the unlimited support and patronage of the first sponsor of culture, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of the Kingdom of Bahrain, May God protect him, and the continuous directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, May God protect him.

In addition, His Excellency praised the partnership and close cooperation between the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and the Louvre Museum in Paris, yielding fruitful long-term loan exhibition for a period of five years. The world art and history lovers and visitors are now offered the opportunity to discover and be acquainted closely with an important part of the history of Bahrain and the region. His Excellency also thanked all the contributors to the exhibition, starting with the cadres of the Culture Authority, the Bahrain National Museum, and the Near East Department of the Louvre Museum.

For her part, Mrs. Laurence de Cars said, in her statement that she is pleased that the Louvre Museum hosts more than 70 artifacts from the Kingdom of Bahrain as part of the cooperation between the two institutions, stressing that thanks to the five-year loan project, visitors to the Louvre will be able to learn about the history of civilizations that flourished on the island of Bahrain.

Mrs. Laurence de Cars also noted that the Louvre Museum's receipt of the excavations conducted at the Abu Saiba site, beginning of this year, is a continuation of the strong cultural relations between the two countries, reminding that the French excavation works started at Qala’at al-Bahrain Fort site in the late 1970s to establish a long-term cooperation between the relevant institutions in Bahrain and France.

Worth to mention that the above-mentioned Bahrain National Museum’s five-year loan exhibition to the Louvre Museum is within the agreement signed between the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) and the Louvre Museum during the visit of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Amy God Protect Him, to France, in 2019.

The exhibition “From Dilmun to Tylos: An Archaeological Journey around the Kingdom of Bahrain, part of the exceptional loan, in addition to other pieces from the Near East Department at the Louvre Museum exceptional collection of 70 Bahraini from the Dilmun and Tylos periods, will reveal the major role played by the region in the development of Ancient Near Eastern civilizations. The public will be much gratified to discover the story of the successive civilizations in the Kingdom of Bahrain between the Bronze Age more than 4000 years ago until the beginning of the first millennium BC. The artifacts reveal a many data about the social practices and the political and cultural relations between the ancient inhabitants of Bahrain and the other ancient civilizations around, namely Bahrain this once thriving crossroads of commerce and culture between Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indus civilization.

The Beginning of Dilmun, the Land of Immortality

The exhibition’s timeline starts with the Late Dilmun civilization, which dates back to about 2500 BC, as it sheds light on the important factors that contributed to the Dilmun acquiring strategic importance among the civilizations that flourished in Oman, the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. The objects displayed at this exhibition reveal that Dilmun has become a "warehouse station for the Gulf region at trade crossroads for sailors and seafarers looking for a port of call”, given its ideal geographical location between countries rich in foodstuffs and precious metals.

The collection of 70 Bahraini from the Dilmun and Tylos periods exhibition also highlights the distinctive unique geographical location of Bahrain, endowed with fortified bays and the many fresh water springs scattered on land and sea, thus becoming supply points for trips between the civilization of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and Majan in Oman and others.
In addition, visitors are offered the opportunity to discover in details directly the funerary customs and rituals that prevailed in Late Dilmun, which contributed to the emergence of the famous Burial Mounds, registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “Archaeological Burials of Dilmun”, counting today are more than 8000 tells. Indeed, these burial mounds reflect the multiple complex stratifications of social classes in Dilmun, in addition to containing strong evidence, such as pottery bowels, stones and stone vessels, indicating the existence of complex burial rituals in Dilmun and trade relations with neighboring countries.

Mesopotamia and Dilmun Civilization

The official administrative, literary and mythological texts of Mesopotamia of the time reveal the reference to Dilmun as these objects will tell us. These texts depict Dilmun as a fertile and rich land, confirming views that it has become a major trading partner with the Mesopotamian civilization and its source for many materials such as copper, red wood, tin and precious stones. Perforated relief plaque of Ur-Nanshe, king of Lagash, is an example of these documents displayed at the exhibition is the famous, depicting the temples built out of Dilmunian wooden materials.

Moreover, artifacts found and exhibited in this show, which include cuneiform inscriptions, seals, potteries and semi-precious stones, all of which link to Mesopotamia. Among the other important pieces that the exhibition “From Tylos to Dilmun” is the “Snake Bowl”, excavated at the site of Qal’at al-Bahrain, which is registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These bowls reveal how the Dilmunian society, in a later period, was influenced by the culture of Mesopotamia. After its strong rise, Dilmun lost its independence in the middle of the second millennium BC and fell under the rule of the Babylonian Kassite Kingdom (Iraq today), and this is evidenced by the large number of cuneiform tablets found at the site of Qal'at al-Bahrain. Several centuries later, in the Neo-Assyrian period (9th-7th centuries BC), Dilmun re-emerged as a small kingdom that owed its allegiance to the Assyrian king Sargon and paid him a tax.

Bahrain in the Era of Tylos

The exhibition “From Tylos to Bahrain: An Archaeological Journey around the Kingdom of Bahrain” features also a number of artifacts that were discovered in sites such as Shakhura, Abu Saiba, Sar and Hamad Town, such as tombstones, glass vessels, jewelry and pearls, which give an idea about the Tylos era. Following Alexander the Great's conquest of the Middle East, Bahrain came under the rule of the Seleucid Empire, around 300 BC. During that period, Bahrain retained its position at the heart of regional trade lines, while struck and circulated coins, conserving is reputed fame as the land of pearl fishing trade, reaching the markets of Rome.

Indeed, this exhibition reaffirms the strong cultural relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the French Republic, and explains how the French Archaeological Mission contributed to uncovering the cultural treasures in the Kingdom. Since 2017, the French the French Archaeological Mission, conducted many excavation works at this site that includes also Abu Saiba, dating back to Tylos Period (50 BC-150 C.E). This leading pioneering role was replaced and reassigned to the Louvre in 2022. The samples of funerary annexes found with the dead at this site, some of which were included on loan from Bahrain museums to the Louvre Museum, testify to a period of great prosperity witnessed by the island Bahrain - Tylos in that era.

In addition to Dilmun seals and tombstones from the Tylos era, the exhibition presents unique pieces from both the Bahrain National Museum and the Near East Department of the Louvre, such as commercial cuneiform tables and plaques panels that reflect and depict Dilmun's commercial and political position, stone and pottery vessels that were used in trade and in funeral rites. Small figurines, jugs, saucers, cups and mouth straps and golden eyes do certainly add to the beauty of these rare artifacts and how deeply-rooted the civilization of Bahrain.