Hundreds of circular stamp seals have been uncovered on Failaka Island, dating to the Bronze Age. 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.” They served as merchant’s personal signatures, as their primary purpose was to sign trade agreements with their imagery being pressed into clay, bitumen, or wax. They were pierced and were likely worn around the merchant’s neck. Dilmunite stamp seals appear to have been locally manufactured. They are mostly made of steatite, also known as soapstone, and are only a few centimeters in size. According to Rice, apart from their straightforward economic function, seals also likely served as, “talismanic, powerful amulets which invoked the protection of a divinity over the goods which they marked, or even, over the owner himself… since some… were attached to their owners in their tombs.”

Here are some publications about Failaka’s seals:

In the 1920s, Leonard Woolley found a circular stamp seal during his excavations at Ur. Today, it is in the British Museum. The second stamp seal below is on display at the Met Museum. The shape of the Dilmunite stamp seals is noteworthy; Mesopotamia had cylinder seals and the Indus River Valley had square seals, so the circular shape of Dilmun’s seals were perhaps intended to distinguish them. D.T. Potts writes that, “they are characterized by a flat obverse and hemispherical reverse.”

When Danish archaeologists began formal excavations on the island on Failaka in the 1950s, they uncovered almost four hundred circular stamp seals. Even more seals have continued to turn up in excavations since the 1960s. To date, around 600 have been found, according to this 2025 Archaeology Magazine article. According to 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 images below come from the Facebook page “Discovering Dilmun, the 1983 publication The Stamp and Cylinder Seals by Paul Kjaerum and Voice of the Oud by Jehan Rajab.

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 temple complex (previously thought to be palace, known as F6-A), and a temple (known as F6-B). The first image below comes from Search for Paradise Land by Michael Rice. The maps come from this blog, reddit, and the paper “The Riddle of the Springs of Dilmun”

Here are some more images from this book found on Internet Archive.

When the Danish archaeologists were first excavating at Failaka, they uncovered seals primarily at the sites of F3 and F6. Different missions since that time have excavated at the site of Al Khidr. In his paper The Archaeology of Kuwait, Majed Almutairi writes that tells us that more than 70 seals have been found at the Al-Khidr site. These seals were catalogues in the 2012 work “Failaka Seals Catalogue, vol. I, Al-Khidr.” Most seals were 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. 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. You can also see a linoleum engraving by artist Thuraya Albaqsami inspired by the Failaka seals.

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

The first pendant was for sale on worthpoint and was purchased by an American woman who lived in Bahrain in the 1980s. The second pendant was for sale on ebay. The third also for sale on ebay. The fourth from here.

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).” The following section of this blog post will focus on the depiction of bovids on Dilmunite stamp seals. 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 Failaka Island by Jehan Rajab and the instagram of Alymamah. Rajab writes, “Failaka, according to Greek records, ahd herds of gazelles and they were also depicted on many of the mound seals found in the Bronze Age settlements. This lovely one was found in the desert in central Failaka in an area known as al-Qusur (the palaces); nobody knew how it got there.”

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.” The Akkadian grey cylinder seal at the beginning of this post 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.

The following come from Dilmun Culture