Around 100 historic burial mounds in Hamad Town in Bahrain, dating back 4,000 years, could be bulldozed to make way for a new road.

The Northern Municipal Council have asked the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities to provide a timeframe for excavations at the site - after residents complained of traffic congestion, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Councillors argued that there were thousands of other burial mounds in the area that would remain untouched, but said a new access road was needed to ease traffic flow.

The council reacted after receiving a petition signed by 300 residents calling for a new road.

"We are keen on protecting history and the burial mounds are of significance not just to Bahrainis, but to the world, as they possess knowledge and rich value that is unmatched elsewhere," said area councillor Khalid Qambar.

"But when history interferes with the public interest, the welfare of citizens has to come first.

"We don't want the thousands of mounds in Hamad Town bulldozed because we want them registered as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

"We need to remove something between three per cent and 5pc to resolve a problem.

"What the council is asking for is not absurd as several mounds in A'ali and Buri have been excavated, photographed and their artefacts taken to Bahrain National Museum to make way for the Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway and new homes."

Qambar, who is the council's financial, administrative and legislative committee chairman, said residents in Hamad Town were suffering from traffic congestion, especially from roundabout four to seven, with only one entrance and one exit to their neighbourhood.

"The road network in that location needs improvement, especially knowing that there is Ghazi Al Gosaibi Secondary School for Girls that sees hundreds of parents drop their children, two popular mosques that see people from all across Bahrain come for events and Quran studies, besides people living there," he said.

"We need a timeframe from the authority concerned on when it would carry out excavations.

"We understand it would cost a lot, but we will work to secure the required funding from the national budget in co-ordination with parliament.

"It may take years, but we have to start now before people are forced to sleep in their cars.

"Traffic congestion in the area is unbearable at the moment, not just at rush hour but at all times."

Qambar revealed work on one access road from Suq Waqf to roundabout seven had been stopped following the discovery of a historic site.

"We hope that an alternative route is found for work to continue there, it could be a solution until the mounds issue is resolved," he said.

Application

An application to recognise 11 burial mound locations, stretching 25km from the centre of the country to the northern coast, as a World Heritage Site was submitted to Unesco by Bahrain six years ago.

That included the Buri mounds, which along with those in Dar Kulayb and Karzakan were described in Bahrain's application as: "The highest level of density of burial mounds in one field and the highest density of mound fields in a relatively limited territory."

Bahrain hopes the mounds qualify for World Heritage Site status based on Unesco criteria that they "bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared".

It argued that each of the 11 sites "provides essential archaeological and scientific data defining the unique funerary practices of the Dilmun and Tylos civilisations". - TradeArabia News Service