Archeologists Stumble on a Kuwaiti Island That Housed Humans 2,300 Years Ago With Surplus of Natural Resources

A recent archaeological mission carried out with the joint efforts of teams from Kuwait and Italy, unearthed a Hellenistic-era building and courtyard on Failaka Island. The island is located in the northeast side of Kuwait and the structure found at the site dates back almost 2,300 years, per Kuwait Times. The northeast side is called Al-Qurainiya and the land is rich in historical finds that date from pre-Islamic to late Islamic period. 

The discovery of the site was first revealed by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL). The archaeologists dug up portions of rock foundations, an interior wall, and an entrance connecting the courtyard to a room that was plastered along with several potteries and artifacts. "The oldest layers date to the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., establishing Al-Qurainiya as one of Failaka’s largest archaeological sites," Mohammad bin Redha, acting Assistant Secretary-General for Antiquities and Museums, told the news outlet. The excavation project was carried out in collaboration between NCCAL and the University of Perugia, Italy.

The archaeology mission was led by Dr. Andrea De Micheli to bring the Hellenistic presence on the island under focus. De Micheli was joined by Dr. Hassan Ashkanani, a professor of archaeology and anthropology, from Kuwait University. Ashkanani highlighted the significance of finding Hellenistic structures in the north of the island since previous discoveries from that period were concentrated in the southwest region only. Their research suggested that Al-Qurainiya might have been a strategic port or center of control along with residential areas, castles, and temples. The NCCAL planned to collaborate with Kuwait University and the international laboratories in 2025 to utilize advanced techniques to analyze gypsum and clay found from the excavation sites. 

As indicated by De Micheli, the next phase of the research would focus on exploring the western part of the pre-Islamic Al-Qurainiya settlement. Previous excavation projects carried out between 2014 and 2020, brought up evidence of houses from the 8th century A.D. that date back to the early Islamic period. It suggested that the site was abandoned around the late 8th or early 9th century but it was reoccupied in the latter half of the 18th to 20th century. Failaka Island has a shallow surface that measures only 12 km in length and 6 km wide, per UNESCO. It was an ideal location for human settlement and had a surplus of natural resources like fresh water, fertile land, and maritime routes that connected the people to Mesopotamians.

The excavation projects on the Failaka Island started in 1958 and it continues. "The significance of the proposed archeological sites is that they represent civilizations extending between the 2nd millennium B.C. and the 2nd century B.C. These sites are geographically close to each other and fenced within a land plot of approximately 382,000 square meters," the UNESCO report on the island read. Various reports also indicated that several habitable units were unearthed on the island and some even had side-by-side rooms and were built using mud, rocks, and at times, limestones.