Page 267 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1878-1879 593

212 TIIE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN.

question which is so closely connected with the mythological
that the one is unintelligible without a due knowledge, of the
other.
Let it bo understood then that throughout the Assyrian
tablets, from the earliest period to the latest, there is constant
allusion to an island called Niduk-ki in

Accadian, and >-< y Tilvun or Tilmun in Assyrian,1 and
that this name, which unquestionably applies to Bahrein, is so
frequently associated with two others, Milukh and Mayan, or
Maklcan, that tho three places may be assumed with certainty
to bo in the same neighbourhood. Now Milukh and Mayan,
which simply mean, as I believe, “ upper ” and "lower,” are
better known to Assyriologists in their application to Egypt,
that is, as indicating “ the lower and upper country,” or
Misraim in the dual number. It is immaterial to my present
argument to discuss whether the Egyptian Milukh and Mayan
arc to be understood as Lybia and Sinai, according to the sug­
gestion of Lenormant,2 which seems to bo accepted by Oppert
and even by Saycc, or whether tho two names refer, as I be­
lieve, to tho upper country of Egypt and tho Delta. What I
have hero to do is to show that there was an “ eastern” as well
as a “ western” Milukh and Mayan, and that the two names in
Eastern Geography indicated two ports in the Persian Gulf,
which must have been contiguous to Bahrein.3 The evidence
1 Tho meaning of tho Accadian name Nidukki may bo either ‘possessing altars *
or ‘ possessing a God,* for tho letter used ns a monogram, has both signifi­
cations, and either of theso would bo suitablo to tho holy character of tho islnud;
hut it is difficult to find a similar signification for tho Assyriau equivalent Tilvun
or Tilmun, if wo nro restricted to a Semitic otyinology. It is quite po&siblo,
however, that Tilmun may bo an adopted nnmo, Til being allied to Tilla, a
Turanian correspondent to Akkad * high lands,* and tnun being explained m
Syllabary 15G by dablu ‘favour or blessing,’ so that tho mcauing of tho namo
might bo ‘ tho blessed hill ’ or perhaps * tho blessed islo.’
3 Sco Journal of tho Society of Biblical Arcluuology, vol. vi. pp. 3*18 aim 399.
M. Lenormant, 1 sco, credits Prof. Julos Opport with tho original identification
of Milukh. ns tho M<P6V of tho Greeks, but this is, I believe, incorrect. My
** Illustrations of Egyptian History from tho Cuneiform Inscriptions” appeared
in vol. vii. new series, of tho ‘‘Transactions of tho Royal Society of Literature
(Feb. 18G1), long boforo M. Oppert published anything on tho subject, and in that
paper will bo found, not only tho suggestion regarding Mcroo, but most of the other
identifications of Egyptian Historical aud Geographical names which Brugsch re­
gards ns ono of tho most interesting discoveries of tho ago. . .
3 If tho tradition wero confirmed of a very early colonization of Babylonia from
ligypti wo might well supposo tho names of Milukh aud Mayan to havo been