The images below were found here, here, and here. The rest of the images on the blog post come from Failaka Island by Jehan Rajab.

Kuwait’s Failaka Island has a history dating back more than 4,000 years, including settlement by the Dilmun civilization, ancient Greeks, a medieval monastery, early modern pirates and more. Over time, the ancient settlements and temples were covered up and developed into small hills or “tells,” which is simply the Arabic word for hill/mound. The remains of the island’s ancient history were woven into its modern oral history. There is a well-known Failichawi story that once, a young woman named Sa’adeh engaged in illicit behavior and was exiled to a remote area in the northwest of Failaka. Only after her death did her brothers Sa’ad and Sa’id learn that she had been falsely accused. Deeply ashamed, they went to the southwestern end of the island and waited for death atop two mounds. These mounds were henceforth known as Tell Sa’ad and Tell Sa’id. With time, they became known as holy sites and pilgrims traveled to the island to visit them. During a trip to the island in 1935, H.R.P. Dickson and his wife Violet noted that the tells were covered with potsherds. During her 1937 visit, Stark was told that beads and bracelets were sometimes found when the ground was ploughed at the tells.

Near the village of Al-Zor was another small hill, known as Al Khazneh (the Treasury). There was a story that the tell contained a treasure chest within it, but that a snake protected its contents. This story conflicts with a well-known legend that snakes never survived on Failaka. Regardless, Al Khazneh did produce treasures. In the 1930s, a piece of sandstone bearing an inscription was uncovered there, the first Greek find on the island. Jehan Rajab tells us that the stone, “was about to be used by the islanders for building purposes, a common habit everywhere.” The stone was presented to HRP Dickson who sent a photograph to the British Museum. The inscription read, “Soteles, citizen of Athens, and the soldiers (dedicated this) to Zeus Soter (the saviour), to Poseidon, and Artemis Soteira (the saviouress).” This artifact stoked curiosity as to whether Failaka was the ancient island of Ikaros, mentioned in sources such as Strabo and Arrian as having been discovered and named by expeditions sent by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. The images of the artifact come from Jehan Rajab’s work.

In 1953, an old farmhouse was torn down to build a new road, which would lead from Al-Zor village to Tell Sa’ad in the southwest of the island, where Sheikh Ahmed Al Jaber had built a rest house in 1927. In the process of this demolition, an inscribed stone slab made from white limestone was found, which had been part of the foundation of the farmhouse. The inscription read “Palace of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.” It seems that Tell Sa’ad had also been used by locals to search for building materials, thereby integrating the island’s ancient history into their modern homes. The images below come from the 2024 publication Copper, Cuneiform Inscriptions and Other Finds by Flemming Hojlund and the 1975 article An Inscribed Stone Slab by A.J. Ferrara.

In the 1950s, the Kuwait Department of Education invited a Danish archaeological team, headed by Peter Glob, to conduct excavations on Failaka. The Danes had been excavating in Bahrain under Geoffrey Bibby since 1954, searching for ruins of the Dilmun civilization. One of the earliest recorded mentions of Dilmun is on the Perforated Relief of Ur-Nanshe (King of Lagash), dated to 2500 BCE and on display at the Louvre. In Failaka Island Jehan Rajab writes that Dilmun was a convenient stopping point for Sumerian trading trips and that, “it was from Dilmun that the Sumerians obtained pearls which they called ‘fish eye.'” Dilmun has also long been associated with the Garden of Eden and the Fountain of Life. While Dilmun was centered in Bahrain, Rajab writes that, “it seemed possible that Failaka too had been part of Dilmun.”

Between 1958 and 1963, this pioneering mission excavated the mounds named for the legend of the heartbroken brothers; Tell Sa’ad became known as F3. Within it, they found ancient Dilmunite homes, an industrial area with kilns, and an open air shrine. They also excavated at another Bronze Age Site, which was named F6. The site was first believed by archaeologists to be a palace, but after a nearby temple was discovered in the 1980s, it was reinterpreted as a production and storage facility. At these Dilmunite sites, they found hundreds of engraved seals. They also visited the shrine of Khidr. According to Bibby, they “speculated that its origin might have related to the fertility rites of Ishtar, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess.”

Kuwaiti authorities were also interested in discovering the connections between Failaka and ancient Greece. This connection was definitively proved. Tell Sa’id became known as F5 and within it, archaeologists found the Seleucid fortress. The fortress had two temples inside. The better known of the two, Temple A, was a syncretic blend of architectural styles, featuring typical Greek ornament known as acroteria as well as Ionic columns, but with Achaemenid Persian style bases. Archaeologists also dug at another Hellenistic site along the shore, which was named F4, and contained an inn for travelers and a workshop for molding terracotta statues.

An important artifact discovered by the Danes in 1960 is known as the Ikaros Stele. It was discovered in front of the temple and details the island’s law. Rajab writes that its discovery provided, “the proof that Failaka was the ‘island of Ikaros’ that Alexander the Great had commanded to be so named.” The stele can now be seen on display at the Kuwait National Museum. When it was uncovered, Kristian Jeppesen, a Professor of Greek archaeology, began to translate it almost immediately. It begins, “Anaxarchos greets the inhabitants of Ikaros… the king is concerned about the island of Ikaros, both because the forefathers consecrated an aphidrysis in this place and because they endeavoured to transfer the sanctuary of Soteira.” In Voice of the Oud, Jehan Rajab writes that it is a mystery, “where the stones for the temple and now the stele had come from, as there was nothing suitable on Failaka for such a building. Possibly it had been brought over from somewhere by ship, as a gift from a wealthy devotee.”

In the 1970s, American archaeologists excavated at Failaka under the direction of Theresa Howard Carter from John Hopkins University. Carter (1929-2015) published several works including (1972) The John Hopkins Expedition, (1981) The Tangible Evidence for the Earliest Dilmun, (1982) Dilmun: At Sea or Not at Sea?. According to a New York Times article from September of 1990,

“Saddam Hussein, successor to the rulers of ancient Mesopotamia, the likes of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi, has clouded the prospects for explorations into the civilizations that produced the first writing and earliest experiments in agriculture and urban living. Although generals and diplomats probably give little thought to archeology in the aftermath of the Iraqi president’s invasion of Kuwait, scholars see troubling implications for research in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq, the place where historical time began. But leaders of major research projects… are especially worried because some Iraqi military installations, likely targets of any American attack, are believed to be near important archeological sites. Dr. Theresa Howard-Carter, an authority on Kuwaiti antiquities for the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, said she feared the widespread looting in Kuwait City would destroy the new museum that she had been helping develop there. Dr. Howard-Carter remembers day after day waking up at dawn to the distant rumble of cannon fire. She was at Failakah, an island off Kuwait, during the Iraq-Iran war. The fighting was less than 80 miles away, but she kept digging in the ruins of a Greek settlement more than 2,000 years old. She said she wished she could work there again, but wonders when.”

The photographs below are by Deri Barringer from the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries and feature Theresa Howard Carter.

There have been many other archaeological missions to Failaka. In the 1970s, an Italian team excavated on Failaka. Peter Barta writes that they carried out the first systematic study of Al-Quraniya, a village dating back to the 1600s. It had previously been, “dug by amateur archaeologists and shortly after that surveyed by the Danish in 1958.” In the 1980s, French teams excavated on Failaka, resulting in many publications. From 2004 to 2009, a Kuwaiti-Slovak team worked at Failaka and Miskan Island. From 2008 to 2012, A Kuwaiti-Danish team excavated F6. From 2010 to 2015, a Kuwaiti-Italian team excavated Al-Qurainiyah. From 2011 to 2017, a Kuwaiti-Georgian team excavated on the island as well as in the desert Subiya, which was also excavated by a Kuwaiti-Polish team from 2012 – 16. The work of archaeologists continues to shed light on the different facets of the island’s past. In just the first three months of 2025, it was reported that another Dilmunite temple was found at F6, an ancient Greek building and courtyard was discovered at Al-Qurainiyah, and that a well was found at Al-Qusur, as well as five kilograms of precious stones, including rubies and purple amethyst.