ABSTRACT
When Captain Durand visited Bahrain in the winter of 1878/9 he opened several of the tumulus burial mounds which dominate the Aali district, near the village of the same name. He reported to his government enthusiastically on his findings. In one of the tombs he appears to have come up against a wall, inconveniently sited for his further exploration; with disarming succinctness he observes: ‘We blew this out.’1
