Pre-defence seminar with Aiysha Abu Laban

Imaging Dilmun in the round –  A study of the stamp seal assemblage from the Dilmun settlements on Failaka (Kuwait) during the first half of the 2^nd millennium BC

External examiner: Dr. Suzanne Herbodt-von Wickede, University of Leipzig

Abstract:

By the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, the settlements in Dilmun, based in the Northern part of the Persian Gulf, grew from small fishing and herding communities into larger fortified cities with monumental public buildings and burials. Dilmun benefitted from the trade in the Gulf region, especially from the demand for, among other materials, copper, which was imported from the mines of Magan – present-day Oman and the Emirates. Dilmun functioned as a gateway to these invaluable resources, and in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE this trade network was controlled by Dilmun, where the island of Failaka (Kuwait) was established as a trading outpost.

In order to comply with the increasing influx of goods and trade transactions, the Dilmun governing institution called for a standardization of the administrative tools. Seals used to stamp on sealed goods and trade documents were shaped and decorated according to a fixed formula, and the images carved on the seals and the narrative they composed followed certain rules.

The thesis is two-fold: First it explores how seals configured as tools in the bureaucratic system, how they were worn and reused (Chapter 3). And secondly to investigate how the Dilmun state visually conveyed certain aspects of its ideological and mythological ideas and beliefs, as well as how the underlying socio-political structures of its society were embedded in the scene (Chapter 6). The thesis also seeks out to define the makers of the seals (the governing institution), their owners (the Dilmunites) and the viewers. It also discusses how such artefacts and the images they carry were part of constructing and negotiating the identity for the Dilmun state on the one hand and the individual owner on the other; and how seals were used beyond their main function as administrative tools.   

A revision of the stylistic groupings (Chapter 4) and a contextual analysis (Chapter 5) leads together with the above mentioned questions (Chapter 3 and 6) to a consideration of the changes in the economic and socio-political settings during the course of more than five centuries of seal usage. Three main phases are recognized: 1. Earliest stages toward state formation of Dilmun (until the late 3^rd millennium), 2. The emergent and flourishing of the Dilmun state (20^th-18^th century BC), and 3. The political and economic instability (from the 17^th century BC) (Chapter 2).

The pre-defence seminar will focus on Chapter 6.