IOR/R/15/2/1513

Correspondence relating to the Dilmun burial mounds in Bahrain, including archaeological excavations of, and damage inflicted to them. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave); the Political Agent at Bahrain (Captain Charles Geoffrey Prior; Major Tom Hickinbotham).

The file covers three distinct periods, as follows:

• correspondence dated May to June 1927 exchanged between the Political Agent (Prior) and the Secretary to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, referring to whether action was taken on a telegram dated 13 November 1925 (not included in the file) relating to archaeological excavations taking place in Bahrain under Mr Ernest Mackay (ff 2-3);
• correspondence dated 1937 exchanged between the Political Agent (Hickinbotham) and Belgrave, relating to a report entitled ‘Archaeological discoveries in Bahrain’, written by Belgrave, intended for submission to The Times newspaper (ff 4-8);
• correspondence dated 1944, exchanged between Belgrave, the Political Agent (Hickinbotham) and the Air Liaison Officer at Bahrain (Wing Commander H C Parker), relating to damage inflicted on some mounds by a ‘stone crushing machine’, used to extract stone for Royal Air Force (RAF) works in Bahrain (ff 9-12).