Abstract: This printed memorandum by Sir Leonard Day Wakely (signed L D W), Political Department, India Office, dated 3 February 1921, provides an overview of antiquities in Mesopotamia [Iraq].The memorandum detail:the Ottoman administration of archaeology;German archaeological expeditions during the First World War;the declaration of a proclamation by the General Officer Commanding, dated 22 May 1917, declaring all antiquities are property of the Administration and questions;a request from the British Museum in November 1917 to the War Office to attach an archaeologist to the army in Mesopotamia, with Dr Henry Reginald Holland Hall dispatched in November 1918;preservation of certain important monuments, such as the ruins of Ctesiphon;Dr Hall and Reginald Campbell Thompson undertaking their own excavations and shipping the resulting collections to the British Museum, and a resulting ban on removing archaeological artefacts from Mesopotamia on 23 May 1919;general questions arising from this concerning requests for expeditions from the University of Philadelphia, Professor Stephen Herbert Langdon of the University of Oxford, and Professor James Henry Breasted of the University of Chicago;the question of establishing an Archaeological Department and Professor Albert Tobias Clay's suggestion of establishing a School of Archaeological Research in 1920;the Archaeological Joint Committee formed in 1918 and chaired by Sir Frederic George Kenyon; and the disposal of Samarra [Sāmarrā’];and other German collections stored in Mesopotamia and antiquities (the Lisbon Collection) seized by Portuguese authorities during the War.Physical description: Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the front cover, and terminates at the inside back cover; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
Abstract: Letter No. 164 from Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Charles Ross, Her British Majesty's Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, to Alfred Comyn Lyall, Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, 1 May 1879, enclosing notes on the islands of Bahrain and Antiquities, written by Edward Law Durand, and commenting that some of the antiquities described had not been documented before and were of interest to the British Museum who were funding further research and excavation.The notes are broken down into the following headings:BahrainDescriptive: describing the physical geography of the islands and their surrounding waters, the longitude and latitude and navigable access by sea;Trade: describing the pearl and date trades, and ways in which trade and harbour access might be improved;Interior of the Islands: describing geographical features inland;Water: describing the locations of fresh springs across the island and also the availability of salt;Trees and Plants; describing the flora and fauna of the islands;Animals: tame animals including horses, donkeys, camels and cowsWild animals: including gazelle, mongoose and hares.AntiquitiesAntiquarian: giving an account of the earliest known history of the islands, including their rulership by the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Arabs and Portuguese, before describing the antiquities to be found on the islands.The notes describe the antiquities visited by Captain Durand during trips to Bahrain, including all the mosques on the islands; an old stone water well found in a date grove near Bilad-i-Kadim [Bilad al Qadeem]; a number of mounds at Ali [Aali] which were determined to be temples or tombs, which Durand speculates may have been the great Phoenician cemetery of Gerrha and which he spent several days exploring and excavating.The notes include illustrations (folios 29, 30, 33 and 35) to accompany the report, which were lithographed from originals supplied by the Foreign Department of the Government of India.The notes also included two maps which have since been removed and are kept in the India Office Maps Collection (IOR/W/L/PS/18/B95).Physical description: Foliation: The foliation for this description commences at folio 25, and terminates at folio 38, since it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in the top right hand corner of the recto of each folio. These numbers are written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: Correspondence relating to the Dilmun burial mounds in Bahrain, including archaeological excavations of, and damage inflicted to them. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave); the Political Agent at Bahrain (Captain Charles Geoffrey Prior; Major Tom Hickinbotham).The file covers three distinct periods, as follows:correspondence dated May to June 1927 exchanged between the Political Agent (Prior) and the Secretary to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, referring to whether action was taken on a telegram dated 13 November 1925 (not included in the file) relating to archaeological excavations taking place in Bahrain under Mr Ernest Mackay (ff 2-3);correspondence dated 1937 exchanged between the Political Agent (Hickinbotham) and Belgrave, relating to a report entitled ‘Archaeological discoveries in Bahrain’, written by Belgrave, intended for submission to
The Timesnewspaper (ff 4-8);correspondence dated 1944, exchanged between Belgrave, the Political Agent (Hickinbotham) and the Air Liaison Officer at Bahrain (Wing Commander H C Parker), relating to damage inflicted on some mounds by a ‘stone crushing machine’, used to extract stone for Royal Air Force (RAF) works in Bahrain (ff 9-12).Physical description: Foliation: The foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 14; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between ff 2-12; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: The volume’s contents fall into two categories:Reports and memoranda on Bahrain, dated 1875, including a report on the rulers of Bahrain (folios 2-7); a history and genealogy of the Uttoobee [ʿUtūb] tribe (folios 9-10); names of the ʿUtūb rulers (folios 11-13); a memorandum on Bahrain (folios 15-44) covering etymologies of the islands’ names, its inhabitants, political character, and history from the earliest known period to the present day; and a list of some of the principal families in Bahrain (folios 45-46). The first three of these reports are ascribed to an individual called Hajee Abdool Cassim, and are present in the volume in Arabic original and English translation. The author of the last two reports is unclear.The second part of the volume contains correspondence relating to arrangements for the excavation of Bahrain’s tumuli. There are a number of letters dated 1879 (folios 49, 52, 53, 58, 59-60) exchanged between Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Ross, Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Principal Librarian of the British Museum (Edward Bond), the latter being eager to initiate excavations of the tumuli at Bahrain, and forwarding funds of £100 sterling for the project. Later correspondence covers arrangements for the purchase and delivery of pickaxes to Bahrain for the excavations (folios 61-74), and arrangements and letters of recommendation to Shaikh Esau bin Khuleefah [Shaikh ‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] for Theodor and Mabel Bent to visit Bahrain in 1889 to undertake excavations (folios 91-98).Note that Durand’s notes on the antiquities of Bahrain, cited in the original file title, are not themselves included in the volume.Physical description: Foliation: The volume is foliated from the front cover to the inside back cover, using pencil numbers in the top-right corner of each recto. The following foliation anomalies occur: 1a, 1b, 1c.