Archaeological culture · 3rd millennium BCE – 538 BCE
Dilmun
A trading civilisation of the Persian Gulf, centred on the island of Bahrain with the nearby coast of eastern Arabia. Mesopotamian texts describe Dilmun as a land of fresh springs and a stop on the sea route between Sumer and the Indus Valley.
Its people left tens of thousands of burial mounds. It was never a large territorial state.
See Dilmun on the map in 3000 BCE
- On the map
- 3000–538 BCE
How we know
Dilmun is named in Mesopotamian texts from the 3rd millennium BCE, and excavations in Bahrain match those descriptions.
Sites
- Dilmun Burial Mounds c. 2200–1750 BCE (main period)