Failaka Island: Kharaib el-Desht Archeological Project (Kuwait)
Dates of work: 8 March–26 April 2015
Team:
General director: Prof. Piotr Bieliński (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Field director (Kharaib el-Desht): Dr. Agnieszka Pieńkowska (PCMA UW)
Project field director (“Waterfront and Underwater Archaeology of Kuwait. Archeorisk on the Coastal Zone around Failaka Island, Kuwait”): Magdalena Nowakowska (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Archaeologists: Katarzyna Cieślak (independent), Mateusz Iskra (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw), Dr. Łukasz Miechowicz (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences), Ewelina Mizak, Anika Kamińska, Karol Ochnio, Marek Truszkowski (all independent)
Ceramologist: Marta Mierzejewska (PCMA UW)
Photographer: Adam Oleksiak (freelance)
Documentalist: Marek Puszkarski (PCMA UW)
Topographers/documentalists: Jakub Kaniszewski, Szymon Lenarczyk (both freelance), Piotr Zakrzewski (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
(Joint description of seasons 2014 and 2015)
Two stone-built structures were explored in the densely settled residential quarter of southeastern Kharaib el-Desht, a site on the northern coast of Failaka Island in Kuwait. Bulky internal buttresses were a typical feature of this architecture, suggesting a link with the military forts at Zor and Quraniya on the coast (watchtower?). The waterfront project identified many stone structures interpreted as fish traps in the bays of Kharaib el-Desht and Al-Khidr.
Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 25