History of archaeological excavations in Kuwait
KUWAIT: Throughout the years, foreign archaeological missions in Kuwait have contributed significantly to the discovery of several historic civilizations, some of which date back more than 7,000 years. The story of archaeological excavations in Kuwait dates back to 1957, before the independence of Kuwait, when the British administrator at the time invited the Danish exploration mission in Failaka Island, which is located 20 km from Kuwait City.
This was followed by the issuance of a law regulating archaeological work in 1960, the first in the Gulf region, and the later establishment of Kuwait National Council for Culture Arts and Letters (NCAAL) in 2004.
Since its conception, NCAAL has signed several cooperation agreements in the field with international academic bodies like the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the French Institute for the Near East, University of London, Durham University and University of Warsaw, amongst others.
NCAAL also has its own department of antiquities and museums, which is currently cooperating with a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counterpart on a project on the island of Failaka, where homes and a mosque dating back to the late Islamic period have been discovered.
The above-mentioned excavation missions are predominantly focused on two areas, namely the island of Failaka and the Al-Sabbiyah area, north of the Kuwait Bay. On Failaka, a whole city inhabited by the Dilmun civilization was unearthed by a joint team of French and Kuwaiti archaeologists. The civilization was around during the Bronze Age, around 2,000 BC.
The Dilmuns thrived between Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) across the eastern regions of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, up until the northernmost tip of the United Arab Emirates. The same team is also responsible, along with a team of Greek archaeologists, for the discovery of a Hellenic castle, also on Failaka, which dates back between 323 and 146 BC.
Two churches and a village, inhibited by Christians preIslam, were also discovered on the island along with kitchen utensils made from pottery. On the other hand, an Kuwaiti-Italian team are carrying out the excavation of an 800m area, where buildings dating back to the early and mid-Islamic periods have been found.