MANAMA, 3 August 2004 — Construction workers digging to expand the sewerage system on Sunday discovered 2,200-year-old human remains inside a tomb in Karzakan area of southwestern Bahrain.
Preliminary tests conducted by security officials showed that the remains dated back to the Tylos era.
Workers from Downtown Construction discovered the skeleton remains while digging behind the Karzakan Primary School for Boys.
They informed police who took a piece of the skeleton for analysis in their labs.
Police sealed off the area as preparations to excavate the remains by museum officials are being made.
The area — which is close to the present Karzakan graveyards — had been the sight of previous archaeological discoveries that included graveyards and other historical valuables.
Residents claimed that there were other discoveries in the past and that the area had been neglected despite earlier efforts to excavate for historical findings.
The site of the latest discovery is about 10 kilometers away from the historical Aali graveyards.
There are approximately 170,000 burial mounds in Bahrain, the majority dating back to the second and third centuries BC but some of them are only 2000 years old.
Bahrain is considered to be the site of the largest prehistoric cemetery in the world, and the sheer number of burial mounds has led archaeologists to speculate that inhabitants of the Arabian mainland used the island as a pre-historic burial ground. The oldest and largest burial mounds, referred to as the “Royal Tombs”, are found at Aali and measure up to 15 meters in height and 45 meters in diameter.
Aali and Hamad are known for the largest number of burial mounds, which are estimated to be tens of thousands.
There are also thousands of such mounds in the villages of Al-Janabiya, Al-Qaryah and Sar in the northwestern part of the island. As to the village of Al-Hajar in eastern Budaiya, graves are cut in stone and some of them are built.
Bahrain also boasts the presence of thousands of domed burial mounds.
