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Civilization of Tylos - Conference of Pierre Lombard at AFB

Come and meet the Tylos people and discover the land of Bahrain 2000 years ago during an evening conference.

Tylos is the second great pre-Islamic civilization of Bahrain, which succeeded Dilmun towards the end of the 1st millennium BC. From 325 BC, following the visit of several admirals of Alexander the Great, the island of Bahrain, precisely called "Tylos", experienced a phase of exceptional prosperity for about six centuries. This period is generally less known than that of Dilmun, but reveals how Bahrain, between the 2nd century BC and the 3rd century AD, reached a high level of cultural refinement and regained its position as a major international economic crossroads. Because of the scarcity of habitation sites from this period, our understanding of the socio-cultural framework of Tylos relies almost exclusively on funerary customs and archaeological material discovered in the numerous and impressive necropolises of this period: ceramics, glassware, gold and jewelry, clay figurines and stone sculptures. History and archaeology confirm the international character of the culture of Tylos, in constant interaction with different parts of the Hellenized Near East. This lecture, based on the results of numerous Bahraini and French excavations on the island of Bahrain, will allow us to discover this often overlooked aspect of local history, for which French archaeology has played a crucial role.

This conference will be led by Pierre Lombard, archaeologist:
Pierre Lombard is an archaeologist who left the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Lyon a few months ago for a well-deserved retirement! Most of his career has been devoted to the ancient civilizations of the Gulf, and he has been responsible for numerous archaeological sites in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain (but also in Syria and Armenia). He is also the founder in 2003 of the CNRS research laboratory "Archéorient" in Lyon, which remains twenty years later an essential actor of archaeological research in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.
After 33 years as director of the French Archaeological Mission in Bahrain, he has devoted himself since this year to the final publications of his excavations at Qal'at al-Bahrain, but also on other sites of the island.
He is the author of numerous articles and scientific works on this region of the Gulf during the Dilmun and Tylos periods, and has made it possible to discover for the first time in Paris the archaeology of the Kingdom of Bahrain, thanks to an important exhibition then held at the Institut du Monde Arabe. He also worked on other exhibitions dedicated to Dilmun and Tylos, in the Emirates and in Russia. He has also curated several major museum projects in Bahrain: the Qal'at al-Bahrain Site Museum (2008), the Hall of Graves at the National Museum (2017).
He continues to work today as Advisor for Archaeology at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

When? On Wednesday, May 25th
At what time? 7 pm
Where? Alliance Française Bahrain, Education Area, Isa Town
How much? Free event
What language? In French

Alliance Française Bahrain is aware of the Covid situation that’s why all precautionary safety measures will be taken during that evening to protect all attendees’ health.

If you have any questions, please contact : com(@)afbahrain.org

Click HERE to register.