Archaeological finds indicate that the island has been inhabited since 5000 BC; and it was later home to people from the civilization of
Dilmun,
Akkadians,
Assyrians and Persians. Later it was occupied by the Persian Empire, the Islamic Empire; it was colonized by the Portuguese and later made part of the
Ottoman Empire. The most important collections found in the Tarout was pure golden statue representing
Ashtaroot goddess. The statue was found placed on the ground in one of the palm groves in the Tarout. There are many other statues, copper and pottery vessels and traditional weapons found in the Tarout that are displayed in the
Riyadh Museum. It also contains a Portuguese fort which is located in Al Deyrah. The Portuguese castle was repaired in the 951H, which had been built on the ruins of former settlements and one of the oldest ones, dating back to over 5,000 years ago. The site consists of the Fortress of
Al-Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Al Fehani, which was built in 1303H as well as the Fortress of Abu Al-leaf, which is located between the Tarout and
Al Qatif, in addition to the three mosques on the old road from Al Qatif. In 1959 a man cleaning a street discovered rocks with
Sabaean inscriptions on them. The most famous artefacts found on Tārūt were unearthed by Danish archaeologists in 1968; they excavated shards of pottery dating back to 4,500 BC, and others from 3000 BC. When the municipality of Qatīf wanted to build a causeway to Tārūt in 1962 they took sand from the hill known as Tell Rafī’ah, and found Stone Age artifacts, including pottery, and a statue. The last discovery was in 1993 on Tell Rafī’ah. Sometimes archaeological ruins are discovered by accident; something that occurred when a car repair workshop was being renovated and tombs dating back to 2000 BC were found. Many vessels have been found on Tārūt carved from
steatite, particularly from Tell Rafī'ah; the designs are very artistic and include representations of cats, nude men, and motifs connected with the sea and fishing. The source of the steatite was actually in South Western Persia, but the carving industry seems to have been a local one. Among the ancient statues discovered in Tārūt is one of a naked man made out of dark grey stone. It was found in the 1950s by a man ploughing his field. It is 94 cm high, and the man is standing in a reverential posture, with wide eyes. It is almost certainly Sumerian in origin, though it was found about 1000 kilometers from the nearest city of
Sumer. It is a very high quality object, but was almost destroyed by the superstitious villagers, who thought it had something to do with spirits (
jinn), and so cut it in half and beheaded it. It has been restored and now stands the National Museum of Riyadh. In 1962 when some of the inhabitants of the village of Rabī'iyah were replacing their former thatched houses with buildings of stone and plaster, a man climbing some of the hills looking for stones, they chanced upon a jar, and then discovered a number of graves, which experts later suggested were likely to be Jewish in origin. They also found many earthenware vessels at the same site. At Khārijīyah in the north of Tārūt many clay figurines have also been found. == Transport ==