When Danish archaeologists began formal excavations on the island on Failaka in the 1950s, they uncovered almost four hundred stamp seals created from steatite stone more than 4000 years ago. Even more seals have continued to turn up in excavations since the 1960s. Flemming Højlund writes that these “small, exquisitely engraved seals” are “the finest remains from Kuwait’s ancient past.” Michael Rice writes in Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf that, “the sheer quantity of seals from Failaka… is remarkable and frankly puzzling… one explanation would relate to the island’s sacred character.”

The images come the 1983 publication Failaka/Dilmun: the Second Millennium Settlements, volume 1:1 the Stamp and Cylinder Seals, by Paul Kjaerum as part of the Danish Archaeological Investigations on Failaka and the Facebook page “Discovering Dilmun.” The pendant was for sale on worthpoint and was purchased by an American woman who lived in Bahrain in the 1980s.

According to the 2015 publication Failaka Seals Catalogue, “seals were used to ‘sign’ trade agreements written in cuneiform script on clay tablets.” Jehan Rejab writes in Failaka Island, “these seals, possibly engraved locally, featured the gazelle, the buffalo, palm trees and some human figures along with seals of a more geometric nature. Quite a number of similar seals were excavated in Bahrain, thus providing another link with Dilmun.” The Dilmun Civilization was “an ancient independent kingdom, centered on Bahrain, that flourished around 2000 BCE. Dilmun is mentioned as a commercial centre in Sumerian economic texts as a transshipment point for goods between Sumer and the Indus Valley. Bārbār, the remains of an ancient temple… and many thousands of burial mounds attest to the island’s prominence.” The trading network of the Dilmunites extended beyond Bahrain, with Failaka Island in Kuwait being an important location. In addition to leaving behind hundreds of these stamp seals, the Dilmunites also constructed a town (known as F3), a palace (known as F6-A), and a temple (known as F6-B).

According to this article, the mass killing of gazelles marked the rise of human civilization. In his work Looking for Dilmun, Geoffrey Bibby writes that, “the gazelle, most often looking backward, is so common on the seals of Bahrain and Kuwait (while rare on those of Mesopotamia or the Indus) that it must have been regarded as in some way the crest or symbol of the Land of Dilmun.” Michael Rice notes that during the Hellenistic period on Failaka, “deer and wild goats were bred for sacrifice to the island’s goddess.” During the Middle Ages, there was a church in the center of Failaka at al-Qusur where pottery often included the motifs of, “circles, crosses, deer, capricorns, gazelles, and scorpions,” some of which you can see below. Jehan Rajab writes in Voice of the Oud, “until 1961, there were a few gazelle still surviving [on Failaka]. Once walking in the middle of the island, with the wind gently whistling around, I suddenly saw a sand-coloured gazelle, both ears delicately erect gazing intently at me some yards away. We both stood transfixed staring at each other. It was a magical moment, then the creature broke the spell and flicked away melting into the scenery. I never saw even a sight of one again.” The photo of the gazelle on Failaka below comes from the instagram of Alymamah.

The images below come from Looking for Dilmun.

The first stamp seal below was found by Leonard Woolley at Ur during his excavations in the 1920s and today is in the British Museum. The second stamp seal is on display at the Met Museum. The publication Ancient Art in Miniature speaks about Near Eastern seals more generally–in Mesopotamia they more often used cylinder seals, as you can also see below.

The Akkadian grey cylinder seal depicts a hunting scene of an ibex, a species of wild goat [capricorn], “distinguished by the male’s large recurved horns.” There are many different species of gazelle, including the Arabian gazelle, the Goitered gazelle, and the Arabian sand gazelle. This work, entitled Conservation of Arabian Sand Gazelles, writes that in 1968, David Harrison published “Oryx,” discussing the risk of extinction of these animals due to motorized hunting parties and since, there have been concerted conservation efforts. This website writes that, “Gazelles were once much more abundant on the Arabian Peninsula, but the combination of hunting and overgrazing by livestock have greatly depleted their numbers, leaving only small relict populations. In the Neolithic, gazelles were hunted with great frequency in the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula. One successful method involved the use of “kites,” enormous stone-lined avenues that terminate in a corral, where large herds were driven to be slaughtered. They are called kites because of their appearance from the air. Kites were still employed for hunting gazelles up to the beginning of the 20th century. Gazelles are some of the most frequently depicted animals in Saudi petroglyphs,” which you can see below.

In his paper The Archaeology of Kuwait, Majed Almutairi writes that tells us that at the Al-Khidr site, more than 70 seals have been found. Most of them are made from soft stone, although occasionally they are made from other materials. For instance, there is one seal from Al-Khidr that was made from mother of pearl. The 2008 paper Al Khidr on Failaka Island states that, “the circular Dilmun stamp seals are the most spectacular artefacts from Al-Khidr… decorated with simple parallel incisions and four dot-and-circle ornaments… narrative or abstract decoration… human or divine figures, half-human-half-animal creatures, animal figures (gazelle, bull, scorpion, snake, etc.), and celestial bodies (sun, crescent, star).” In addition to depictions of gazelle on the stamp seals, “the remains of wild mammals are represented by the single find of a gazelle bone. Together with sporadic finds of gazelle and fox bones from the Dilmun settlement in south-west Failaka, this can suggest that some hunting my have been practiced.” Almutairi also tells us that in 2008, an artist named Bader al-Mansur uncovered a Dilmun seal on the mainland of Kuwait at al-Shidadiya, which you can see below, as well as a linoleum engraving by artist Thuraya Albaqsami inspired by the Failaka seals.

The maps below come from this blog, reddit, and the paper “The Riddle of the Springs of Dilmun”

Here are Dilmunite Seals on display at the Kuwait National Museum.

The following come from Dilmun Culture