In Kuwait, Polish archaeologists, with the help of local colleagues, have uncovered the oldest temple in the Persian Gulf, more than 7,000 years old, in the desert area.
Scientists say this is a sensation, as the second oldest temple in the region is several thousand years younger than the one discovered. The find is reported by Sience in Poland with reference to the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The temple was discovered by a Polish-Kuwaiti team of archaeologists in northern Kuwait. The discovery was made in a prehistoric settlement at the archaeological site of Bahra 1. Life flourished there already at the end of the 6th millennium BC.
The settlement was in the Al-Sujida Desert. There, among the numerous residential buildings, the researchers came across a very unusual structure.
“This is a rectangular building with a niche symmetrically located in one of the walls,” said the head of the expedition, Professor Piotr Bilinski from Warsaw University. - The remains of a furnace filled with ash were found in a niche. The building was surrounded by a circular wall, which is typical of places of worship in the prehistoric communities of the region."
According to him, this is the oldest temple found in the Gulf region. All the other oldest temples found so far are much younger. So, the second oldest temple is dated only to the middle of the third millennium BC.
The head of the excavation says that the structure found is very similar to the temple in Eridu in southern Mesopotamia, well known to scientists. This also proves that it was a cult object.
According to Bilinski, the temple was created by the mysterious civilization Ubaida. It is believed that it developed in Mesopotamia and exerted a global influence on neighboring regions. Its presence can be traced throughout the Middle East.
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