Danish archaeologists discovered a jewellery workshop containing semi-precious gemstones on a small island of Failaka off Kuwait’s coast. The finds date to between 2100 and 1700 BC.

The island on which the excavations were conducted, home to the people of the Dilmun culture, was a trade hub linking to the the major cities in Mesopotamia, about 3500 years ago, during the Bronze Age. As the trading network collapsed completely around the year 1700 BC all the temples and cities were abandoned. The jewellery workshop was found in a building dated to a period between 1700 and 1600 BC. Archaeologists discovered bits and pieces of semi-precious stones that were imported to the island, possibly from India and Pakistan. The finds indicate that the trade routes must have been re-established in 1600 BC after the collapse, as bonds with lands to the east were rebuilt.

(by Moesgaard Museum & Copenhagen Post)