ʿAkkāz

The island of ʿAkkāz (Kuwait) was excavated in 1978, 1984‒1985, 1995, revealing Seleuco-Parthian, Parthian and Sasanian dwellings, a circular building interpreted as a tower of silence from the Sasanian period, a Christian settlement (church?) from the late Sasanian and Umayyad periods and an Abbasid hoard of coins (fals).

The ancient island of ʿAkkāz is now attached to the mainland, in the south-eastern part of Kuwait Bay.

The site was excavated by the Department of Antiquities of Kuwait in 1978 and 1984‒1985 and by a French team in 1993, 1995‒1996 and 1997 (Mission archéologique française de Failaka – Koweït). It revealed a long chronological sequence of occupation from the Seleucid era (ca. 1st cent. BCE) to the Abbasid period (8th/9th cent. CE) and perhaps also in modern times (17th cent.).

Seven tells were identified over an area of 12,000 sq. m. Only the largest one (55 m in diameter) was excavated (Gachet-Bizollon 2011: 23, fig. 4), as the others had been destroyed by the construction of a port. Knowledge of the site is limited due to destruction and also because of building activities on the main tell (navigation signals, bunkers, etc.). On the main tell, walls of dwellings were excavated, dating to the 1st cent. BCE at the earliest. Several dwellings were built and rebuilt from the Seuleco-Parthian period to the Sasanian period, probably until the 3rd cent. CE. After a period of abandonment, represented by a 1-m-deep, wind-blown sand layer, a circular building (18 m in diameter) was built. Only the base of radiating walls framed by a circular wall was preserved (Gachet-Bizollon 2011: 110, fig. 1). No material was discovered in context and the building could only be dated to the Sasanian period on the basis of its stratigraphic location between an early and a late Sasanian layer. It was interpreted as a tower of silence from the Zoroastrian religion, a dakhma tower, where the dead were exposed to decompose naturally or to be defleshed by animals. This function could explain the very limited material recovered, other than human bones.

In the upper level of the tell, eleven stretches of a very poorly preserved wall were uncovered (Gachet-Bizollon 2011: 124, fig. 1), interpreted as part of a three-aisled church similar to Faylakā, Kharg and Sīr Banī Yās, and a tomb with skeletal remains. The discovery of a small stucco plaque with a cross suggests a Christian occupation, but the function of the building is difficult to ascertain. Most of the walls are not linked and not homogeneous and could be related to different buildings, or different building phases. The suggested dating is from the 5th‒6th until the 8th‒9th centuries, but very few artefacts were preserved.

An Abbasid hoard consisting of fifteen copper coins (fulūs) minted in 157 H/773 CE by order of the caliph al-Mansūr (754-775) was discovered in surface layers.

Julie Bonnéric

References and suggested readings

• Gachet-Bizollon, J. 2011. Le tell d’Akkaz au Koweït / Tell Akkaz in Kuwait. Lyon: Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux.
• Gachet, J. 1988. Akkaz (Kuwait), a site of the Partho-Sasanid period. A preliminary report on three campaigns of excavations (1993‒1996). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 28: 69‒79.
• Al-Najjar, J.K. 1980. Excavations on the island of Akkaz (Al Qurain) 1978 – (first campaign). Majallāt dirasāt al-khalīj wa al-jazīrat al-ʿarabyia 23: 5-14 [in Arabic].

_{Alternate spellings: ʿAkkâz, 'Akkâz, Akkâz, ʿAkkaz, 'Akkaz, Akkaz}