Hillock at northern end of Al Khor Island

Al khore Mangrove forest (Purpule Island) - panoramio (28)

Al Khor Island ( ar, جزيرة الخور), also known as Jazirat bin Ghanim and Purple Island, is an island located in the municipality of Al Khor on the northeast coast of

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. It accommodates the only archaeological site in the country attributable to the second millennium BC. There are four main periods of occupation on the island, dating from as early as c. 2000 BC to as late as 1900 AD. The island is best known for being the site of operation of a

Kassite The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...

-controlled purple dye industry in the second millennium BC.

Geography

Al Khor Island is located approximately 50 km north of the capital

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

. It is connected to land by a tapered dirt pathway which runs through a number of streams. Spanning an area of 1.67 km², the island is found on the eastern side of a sheltered

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

which is overlooked by the city of Al Khor. The width of the bay ranges from 2.2 to 6.5 km. It is linked to the open sea by a channel with a width of roughly 750 meters on its southern end. It is separated from the city of Al Khor by a distance of 420 meters of low water. Many mangroves (''

Avicennia marina ''Avicennia marina'', commonly known as grey mangrove or white mangrove, is a species of mangrove tree classified in the plant family Acanthaceae (formerly in the Verbenaceae or Avicenniaceae). As with other mangroves, it occurs in the intertid ...

'') are found off its southeast and east coast. No potable water was detected on the island but known sources are nearby. Numerous limestone outcroppings can be observed here, the tallest of which is roughly . On the coast there are friable and level-surfaced

beachrock Beachrock is a friable to well-cemented sedimentary rock that consists of a variable mixture of gravel-, sand-, and silt-sized sediment that is Cementation (geology), cemented with Calcium carbonate, carbonate minerals and has formed along a s ...

formations, upon which various

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

shells were discovered. While the relatively high outcroppings contain traces of man-made structures such as burial mounds, the vast majority of archaeological discoveries were made on the level areas surrounding these outcroppings.

Archaeology

Neolithic

Definitive occupation of the island during the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

period is inconclusive. Several Neolithic campsites and Ubaid potsherds were discovered approximately 6 km east of the island.Carter, Robert Jr.; Killick, Robert (2014). p. 5. It has been suggested that the island was visited by these Neolithic inhabitants.

Early Dilmun period

Pottery originating from the

Dilmun Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: , later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), ni.tukki = DILMUNki; ar, دلمون) was an ancient East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual evidence, it was l ...

civilization suggests the island was linked with the Bahrain-based civilization from c. 2000 to 1750 BC. Ceramics dating to the early Dilmun period consist mainly of medium-sized jars and cooking pots. The settlements dating to the Dilmun period may have been established to expedite trade journeys between Bahrain to the closest significant settlement in the Persian Gulf, Tell Abraq. Another scenario entails that the encampments were created by visiting fishermen or

pearl fishers A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

from Dilmun. It has also been suggested that the presence of pottery is indicative of trade between the inhabitants of Al Khor Island and the Dilmun civilization, though this is considered unlikely due to the scarce population of Qatar during this period.

Kassite period

The

Kassites The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...

operated a purple

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

industry on the island from c. 1400 to 1100 BC. There were also trade relations between the inhabitants of Qatar and the Kassite. Among the findings were 3,000,000 crushed snail shells and Kassite potsherds. It has been asserted that the island is the site of the earliest known production of purple shellfish dye. The dye was obtained from the Murex snail and dubbed "

Tyrian purple Tyrian purple ( grc, πορφύρα ''porphúra''; la, purpura), also known as Phoenician red, Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon. It is ...

Sasanian period

Artifacts originating from the late

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

period, from c. 400 to 600 AD, were found here.

Late Islamic period

Al Khor Island was inhabited during the late Islamic period, from c. 1700 to 1900.

Discovery

The Mission Archéologique Français à Qatar, a French team led by Jacques Tixier, discovered the site in 1976.

Gallery

Mangroves in salt marshes of Al Khor Island.jpg, Mangroves in salt marshes of Al Khor Island. Al khore Mangrove forest (Purpule Island) - panoramio (12).jpg, Mangrove forest in Al Khor Island. Cat resting in a salt marsh on Al Khor Island.jpg, Cat resting in a salt marsh on Al Khor Island. View of Al Khor Island from a hillock.jpg, View of Al Khor Island from a hillock.

References

{{Archaeological sites in Qatar Al Khor Archaeological sites in Qatar Islands of Qatar Ubaid period