Bahra 1, Al-Subiyah (As-Sabbiya)
Dates of work: 19 October – 19 November 2016
Team:
Co-Directors: Prof. Piotr Bieliński, archaeologist (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw); Dr. Hamid Al-Mutairi (Department of Antiquities and Museums of the State of Kuwait)
NCCAL representatives: Mustafa Al-Ansari, Talal Al-Shimery
Archaeologists: Dorota Bielińska (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences); Dr. Agnieszka Pieńkowska (PCMA University of Warsaw); Andrzej Reiche, small finds specialist/photographer (National Museum in Warsaw)
Ceramologist: Dr. Anna Smogorzewska (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Malacologist: Victoria Maria Morgan (independent)
Registrar: Mateusz Iskra, archaeologist (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Surveyor: Piotr Zakrzewski (PhD candidate, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Documentalists: Ewa Hander (Archaeological Museum of Chełm); Marta Momot, archaeologist, Agnieszka Szymczak, archaeologist, Dr. Urszula Wicenciak, archaeologist (all PCMA University of Warsaw)
Photographer: Adam Oleksiak (freelance)
The study season in 2016 was dedicated to research on individual categories of finds and a review of the excavation material in preparation for the publication of interim reports and the final publication. Of particular interest is an oval enclosure located in the highest point of the late 6th millennium BC settlement and must have had a special function, as suggested by both its shape and the assemblage of finds, which set it apart from the rest of the village. In November 2016, the PCMA team joined the Polish Embassy in Kuwait in opening in Kuwait City, in cooperation with the National Council for Culture, Art and Letters of Kuwait, a poster exhibition celebrating ten years of the Polish archaeological presence in Kuwait, digging and surveying at Bahra 1, but also on the Al-Sabiyah coast and in Failaka Island (for the other Polish projects, see below in this section).
See also: P. Bieliński, M. Białowarczuk, A. Reiche, A. Smogorzewska, A. Szymczak. (2016). Bahra 1. Excavations in 2014 and 2015. Preliminary report on the sixth and seventh seasons of Kuwaiti–Polish archaeological investigations [KPAM Publications], Kuwait–Warsaw: NCCAL–PCMA UW
Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 26/1