 [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UNESCO World Heritage Committee voted Saturday to add Bahrain’s Dilmun Burial Mounds to its World Heritage List, praising the tombs for their “globally unique characteristics.”
It's not true that Dilmun was the place beer was invented, but it probably was the place the beer joint was invented.
The burial grounds include “21 archaeological sites in the western part of the island” built between 2050 and 1750 BC, according to the global body.
It's also the place where Utu-Napishtim, the Sumerian version of Noah, retired after the gods gave him the gift of immortality.
“Six of these sites are burial mound fields consisting of a few dozen to several thousand tumuli,” it said in a statement. In all there were some 11,774 burial mounds, UNESCO said, while another 15 sites include 17 royal mounds built as two-storied towers.
"Virginal is Dilmun land. Pristine is Dilmun land…. In Dilmun the raven was not yet cawing, the partridge not cackling. The lion did not slay, the wolf was not carrying off lambs, the dog had not been taught to make kids curl up, the pig had not learned that grain was to be eaten. When a widow has spread malt on the roof, the birds did not yet eat that malt up there. The pigeon then did not tuck the head under its wing."
The tombs were among a handful of nominations made Saturday as the World Heritage Committee meets in Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku for its 43rd session.
Utu's retired, of course. He's been puttering around in his garden since 2420 B.C.
UNESCO said the burial mounds were evidence of the early Dilmun civilization, “during which Bahrain became a trade hub, whose prosperity enabled the inhabitants to develop an elaborate burial tradition applicable to the entire population.”
They are the third site in Bahrain to be designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Head of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, said the tombs were “living proof of Bahrain’s distinguished cultural heritage”, according to the kingdom’s official BNA news agency.
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