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'''Dilmun''', or '''Telmun''',<ref>The former is the reconstructed Sumerian pronunciation; the latter is the reconstructed Semitic.</ref> ([[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]: [[File:Dilmun (early Sumerian pictograph).jpg|15px]],<ref name="auto1">Transliteration: {{cite web |title=CDLI-Found Texts |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P222359 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref><ref name="auto">Similar text: {{cite web |title=CDLI-Found Texts |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P222363 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref> later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠),
Based on contextual evidence, it was located in the [[Persian Gulf]], on a [[trade route]] between [[Mesopotamia]] and the [[Indus Valley civilisation]], close to the sea and to [[artesian aquifer|artesian springs]].<ref name="hoj">{{cite journal|author=Jesper Eidema, Flemming Højlund |date=1993 |title=Trade or diplomacy? Assyria and Dilmun in the eighteenth century BC|journal=World Archaeology |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=441–448 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1993.9980218}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=2BevKadehakC |page=8 }} |title=Dilmun and Its Gulf Neighbors|author=Harriet E. W. Crawford|author-link=Harriet Crawford|year=1998|page=9}}</ref> Dilmun encompassed [[Bahrain]],<ref>{{cite web|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=fhMTRcUm9WsC |page=7 }} |title=The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer|work=[[Jean-Jacques Glassner]]|year=1990|page=7}}</ref> [[Kuwait]],<ref name=ak>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/g-wzw-SeJic Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140601050803/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-wzw-SeJic&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-wzw-SeJic&t=171|title=Kuwait's archaeological sites reflect human history & civilizations (2:50 – 3:02)|work=Ministry of Interior News}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name=umm>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41223078|last1=Calvet|first1=Yves|title=Failaka and the Northern Part of Dilmun|year=1989|volume=19|journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies|pages=5–11|jstor=41223078}}</ref><ref name="archa">{{cite web|work=Cardiff University|title=The Archaeology of Kuwait|url=http://orca.cf.ac.uk/41961/7/Almutari%20PhD.pdf|pages=5–427}}</ref> and eastern [[Saudi Arabia]].<ref>{{cite web|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=EwBuAAAAMAAJ |page=32 }} |title=Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain|work=M. A. Nayeem|year=1990|page=32}}</ref> This area is certainly what is meant by references to "Dilmun" among the lands conquered by King [[Sargon II]] and his descendants.
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| header=Dilmun on the relief of Ur-Nanshe
| image1 = Relief Ur-Nanshe Louvre AO2344.jpg
| caption1 = Votive relief of [[Ur-Nanshe]], king of [[Lagash]]: one of the inscriptions reads, “boats from the (distant) land of Dilmun carried the wood (for him)”,<ref name="Pouysségur">[http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/perforated-relief-king-ur-nanshe Louvre] Pouysségur, Patrick , ed. "Perforated Relief of King Ur-Nanshe." Louvre Museum. Louvre Museum. Web. 13 Mar 2013
| image2 = Boats from the land of Dilmun carried the wood, on a relief of Ur-Nanshe.jpg
| caption2 = "Boats from the land of Dilmun carried the wood"<br>𒈣[[File:Dilmun (early Sumerian pictograph, horizontal).jpg|20px]]𒆳𒋫𒄘𒄑𒈬-𒅅<br><small>ma2 dilmun kur-ta gu2 gesz mu-gal2</small><br> on the relief of Ur-Nanshe.<ref name="Pouysségur"/><ref
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[[File:Receipt for garnments sent by boat to Dilmun BM 130462.jpg|thumb|upright|Receipt for garments sent by boat to Dilmun in the 1st year of [[Ibbi-Sin]]'s rule, circa 2028 BCE. British Museum BM 130462.<ref>{{cite web |title=tablet |url=https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=327231&page=171&partId=1&peoA=92773-3-12&people=92773 |website=British Museum}}</ref><ref>Transcription: {{cite web |title=CDLI-Archival View |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P137833 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref>]]
Dilmun was an important trading center from the late fourth millennium to 800 BC.<ref name="hoj"/> At the height of its power, Dilmun controlled the [[Persian Gulf]] trading routes.<ref name="hoj"/> Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium BC.<ref>{{cite web|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=2BevKadehakC |page=152 }} |title=Dilmun and Its Gulf Neighbours|work=Harriet E. W. Crawford|year=1998|page=152}}</ref> Dilmun was conquered by the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]] (1365–1050 BC), and its
commercial power began to decline between 1000 BC and 800 BC because [[piracy]] flourished in the Persian Gulf. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (911–605 BC) conquered Dilmun, and in the 6th century BC the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], and later the [[Achaemenid Empire]], ruled Dilmun.
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=== Kingdom of Dilmun ===
[[File:Coper head of bull Dilmun1.jpg|thumb|250px|Bull's head, made of copper in the early period of Dilmun (ca. 2000 BC), discovered by Danish archeologists under Barbar Temple, [[Bahrain]].]]
From about 2050 BC onward, Dilmun seems to have had its heyday. [[Qal'at al-Bahrain]] was most likely the capital of Dilmun. From texts found at [[Isin]], it becomes clear that Dilmun became an independent kingdom, free from Mesopotamian rule
From about 1720 BC, a decline is visible. Many settlements were no longer used, and the building of royal
=== Dilmun under foreign rule ===
[[File:BE XVII 88.jpg|thumb|250px|Correspondence between [[Ilī-ippašra]], the governor of Dilmun, and [[Enlil-kidinni]], the governor of [[Nippur]], ca. 1350 BC]]
It seems that,
Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of [[Burna-Buriash II]] (c. 1370 BC), recovered from [[Nippur]]
There are other Assyrian inscriptions during the first millennium BC, indicating Assyrian sovereignty over Dilmun.<ref name="Larson">{{cite book|title=Life and land use on the Bahrain Islands: The geoarcheology of an ancient society|last=Larson|first=Curtis E.|year=1983|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-226-46905-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifelanduseon00curt/page/50 50–51]|url=https://archive.org/details/lifelanduseon00curt/page/50}}</ref> One of the early sites discovered in Bahrain suggests that [[Sennacherib]],
The "Persian Gulf" types of circular, stamped (rather than rolled) seals known from
[[Copper]] ingots from [[Oman]] and [[bitumen]] (which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia) may have been exchanged for cotton textiles and domestic [[Poultry|fowl]], major products of the Indus region that are not native to Mesopotamia. Instances of all of these trade goods have been found. The importance of this trade is shown by the fact that the weights and measures used at Dilmun were¡ in fact, identical to those used by the Indus, and were not those used in Southern Mesopotamia.
In
Some Meluhhan vessels may have sailed directly to Mesopotamian ports
==People, language and religion==
The population used [[cuneiform]] to write in the Akkadian language,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WYyTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT217|title=Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture|author=William H. Stiebing Jr|page= 217|year= 2016|isbn=9781315511153}}</ref> and, like the [[Akkadians]], [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Babylonians]] and [[Eblaites]] of [[Mesopotamia]],
==Mythology==
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In the early epic ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]'', the main events, which center on [[Enmerkar]]'s construction of the [[ziggurat]]s in [[Uruk]] and [[Eridu]], are described as taking place at a time "before Dilmun had yet been settled".
Dilmun, sometimes described as "the place where the sun rises" and "the Land of the Living", is the scene of some versions of the [[
Dilmun is also described in the [[Epic poetry|epic]] story of [[Enki]] and [[Ninhursag]] as the site at which the [[Creation myth|Creation]] occurred.<ref name="University of Pennsylvania Press"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kramer|first1=Samuel Noah|title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character|url=https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu|url-access=registration|date=1963|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, Illinois|isbn=978-0-226-45238-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu/page/145 145–150]}}</ref> The later [[Babylon]]ian ''[[Enuma Elish]]'', speaks of the creation site as the place where the mixture of salt water, personified as [[Tiamat]] met and mingled with the fresh water of [[Abzu]]. Bahrain in Arabic means "the twin waters", where the fresh water of the [[Geography of Saudi Arabia#Water resources|Arabian aquifer]] mingles with the salt waters of the [[Persian Gulf]]. The promise of Enki to Ninhursag, the Earth Mother:
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[[File:Dilmun period (3200-320 BC) burial chambers at Saar, Bahrain.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Ruins of a settlement, believed to be from the Dilmun civilization, in [[Sar, Bahrain]]]]
[[File:AncientTombsOfBahrain.svg|thumb|300px|Location of burial mounds in Bahrain]]
In 1987, Theresa Howard-Carter proposed that Dilmun of this era might be a still unidentified tell near the Arvand Rud (Shatt al-Arab in Arabic) between modern-day Quanah and Basra in modern-day Iraq.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Theresa |last=Howard-Carter |title=Dilmun: At Sea or Not at Sea? A Review Article |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies |volume=39 |issue=1 |year=1987 |pages=54–117 |jstor=1359986 |doi=10.2307/1359986 |s2cid=163963264 }}</ref> In favor of Howard-Carter's proposal, it has been noted that this area does lie to the east of Sumer ("where the sun rises"), and the riverbank where Dilmun's maidens would have been accosted aligns with the [[Shat al-Arab]] which is in the midst of marshes. The "mouth of the rivers" where Dilmun was said to lie is for her the union of the Tigris and Euphrates at Qurnah. A number of scholars have suggested that Dilmun originally designated the eastern province of modern
As of 2022, archaeologists have failed to find a site in existence during the time from 3300 BC (Uruk IV) to 556 BC (Neo-Babylonian Era), when Dilmun appears in texts. According to Hojlund, no settlements exist in the Gulf littoral dating to 3300–2000 BC.
===Garden of Eden theory===
In 1922, [[Eduard Glaser]] proposed that the [[Garden of Eden]] was located in Eastern Arabia within the Dilmun civilization.<ref>{{cite journal |author=W. F. Albright |date=October 1922 |title=The Location of the Garden of Eden|jstor=528684 |journal=The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=15–31 |doi=10.1086/369964|s2cid=170465632 }}</ref> Scholar [[Juris Zarins]] also believes that the Garden of Eden was situated in Dilmun at the head of the Persian Gulf (present-day [[Kuwait]]), where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the sea, from his research on this area using information from many different sources, including [[Landsat program|Landsat]] images from space. In this theory, the Bible's [[Gihon]] would correspond with the [[Karun]] in Iran, and the [[Pishon]] River would correspond to the [[Wadi
==Known rulers==
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* [[Kuwait National Museum]]
* [[Uruk]]
* [[Odeh Spring]]
==References==
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