Near East Kingdoms

Dilmun Civilisation (Sumerian Trading Centre)
c.3200 - 320 BC

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The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture. It developed out of the end of the Pottery Neolithic across the Fertile Crescent, a period which had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond.

Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was at last subjected to permanent settlement. Cultures around the edges of this progression included the Hassuna and Samarra which began this settlement process.

The Uruk IV period in the fourth millennium BC greatly accelerated that process. By the end of that period, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states which were independent of one another. Many early historical events in the region are found only in the Sumerian king list, which notates the rulers of the city states (and see feature link), but archaeology has also uncovered a wealth of detail.

It was from this time that Sumer began establishing meaningful trading links which lay outside of southern Mesopotamia. Many of these were city states in northern Mesopotamia, southern Anatolia, and Syria, but others lay farther afield. Dilmun (or Telmun) comes under the latter heading, one of a chain of trading centres which stretched all the way to the Indus Valley.

The Persian Gulf gave Sumerian city states a level of access to Omani copper mines. This supply was crucial to the region's newly-developed bronze technology. Texts begin referring increasingly to a 'land of Dilmun' as an important trading partner with southern Mesopotamia. It became a vital source of timber and copper, although modern claims for Sumer's potential lack of direct timber supplies have sometimes been overplayed.

Dilmun is mentioned only once during the Uruk IV period of the fourth millennium BC, but it is noted with increasing frequency during the 'Early Dynastic' period which covers the greater part of the third millennium BC. It was also important in the early second millennium BC, with major political players such as Elam maintaining close contacts under the Eparti kings.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), from The First Empires, J N Postgate (Oxford 1977), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love ('List 3' of Sumerian rulers at Sarissa.org), and Dilmun Temple Discovered on Failaka Island (Arkeonews), and Dilmun (Encyclopaedia Britannica).)

c.3200 BC

The Uruk IV period which lasts between about 3900-3100 BC has seen the city of Uruk flourish as the only real urban centre in Sumer, and one which still sits at the heart of a great trading and cultural centre. Dilmun is mentioned only once in this period, when writing is just on the verge of flourishing and most cylinder seals and early tablets concentrate on administration.

Some of the earliest cities, such as Sippar, Borsippa, and Kish in the north, and Ur, Uruk, and Eridu in the south, formed the endpoints of what became the complex Sumerian network of cities and canals (click or tap on map to view full sized)

c.2800 BC

The Qala'at al-Baḥrain tell on Bahrain covers around eighteen hectares of land on the island's northern coast. The city is founded around 2800 BC, with seven major building phases including that founding period.

c.2480s BC

Succeeding the ruling high priest, Ur-Nanshe is the founder of an independent dynasty which reigns at Lagash and Girsu for over a century. He is the son of an apparent commoner, Gunidu, son of Gurmu. As king he likes to commemorate his constructions, having himself portrayed in one relief as a simple bricklayer, carrying a brick basket in front of his family. He builds many temples, and also receives a tribute of wood from Dilmun.

c.2300 BC

Bahrain's Qala'at al-Baḥrain undergoes its second major building phase from about this period onwards and down to about 1800 BC. The city walls date to this period, while other discovered artefacts include chert weights of the Indus Valley type, distinctive round steatite stamp seals, and quantities of copper.

The Bahrain fort is based on a mound which has been inhabited since 2300 BC, possibly by Sumerians or their trading partners of Dilmun, although this cannot be proven with real certainty

c.1900 BC

A Bronze Age temple which is linked to the early Dilmun civilisation is built around this time on what today is the Kuwaiti island of Failika in the Persian Gulf. The entire temple measures eleven metres by eleven metres.

Numerous artefacts include seals and ceramics which apparently attest to the temple's connection to the Dilmun people. This is the second such temple discovery in this particular area, alongside a single 'palace' structure.

c.1763 BC

Following an attempted invasion in the previous year (during which Ekallatum is conquered by the Eparti king of Elam), the Elamites are defeated in southern Mesopotamia by Hammurabi's Babylonian empire, and the kingdom begins a period of vassalage to Babylon.

It keeps its own kings though, and maintains close contacts with important centres such as Dilmun, although the region's previous political unity is probably shattered.

Babylon began life as a modest town which had been seized from Kazallu, but was quickly fortified by the building of a city wall in the nineteenth century BC

c.320 BC

The end of ancient Dilmun and its localised civilisation is generally dated to the end of the initial conquest of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great's Macedonian empire.

This year witnesses the first stage in the eventual break-up of Alexander's empire, after which the Seleucid empire will govern large swathes of the Near East. Dilmum itself probably re-emerges into modern history as Bahrain (or Kuwait, plus modern Qatar, UAE, and the coastal strip of north-eastern Saudi Arabia).