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 I         OSlmun: Where and When ?



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          Daniel Potts
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            The identification of Dilmun with the Bahrain    identify any archaeological assemblages on
 i        islands is now widely accepted, as the very title of   Bahrain which could represent the Dilmun refer­
                                                             red to in the early texts. The only candidate would
          this journal attests. Yet even the most cynical
          layman would allow that, although Sir Henry Raw-   be the fourth millennium Qatar D-related assemb­
 i        linsons identification of Bahrain with Dilmun was   lages, and the later levels at Al-Markh, whose
                                                             occupation in the late fourth millennium is possi­
          made over a century ago (Rawlinson 1880 : 27),
          the ruminations of several generations of scholars   ble but still uncertain. Yet it is difficult to know
          since his day over the problem of Dilmun’s         whether these local hunting-fishing-gathering
 i        location have not persisted without some justifica­  Sumerians at this stage by the name Dilmun.
                                                             communities would have been identified by the
          tion. Rawlinson wrote that the ancient name Dil­
          mun (or Tilmun) “unquestionably applies to         Likewise, the only assemblages on the eastern
 i        Bahrain”, and while I have no intention to chal­   Arabian mainland are from comparable Qatar
                                                             D-type stone-tool sites, the exact dates of which
          lenge this view in the main, it is necessary to both
          broaden and restrict the identification of Dilmun,   are uncertain when Ubaid pottery is not present to
          according to the particular time in history to which   date them. There is little archaeological material
 i        one is referring. By being a bit more precise it may   contemporary with the Jamdat Nasr period refer­
          be possible to point out some further problems     ence to Dilmun on Bahrain or in eastern Arabia.
          which remain unsolved. Was Dilmun always           From Bahrain we have the well-known if some­
 i        Bahrain ? What role did eastern Arabia play in the   what enigmatic Jamdat Nasr polychrome sherd
                                                             found to the north of the first Barbar temple (Mor-
          third millennium B.C. ? Has the name Dilmun
                                                             tensen 1970 : 395). Further, a Jamdat Nasr style
          ever been applied to other regions ? When and      stamp seal from mound 1 at Hajjar has also been
 i        where is it last attested ? These are some of the   published (Rice 1972 : 68). The eastern Arabian
          questions to be addressed here.
                                                             mainland has also produced a single Jamdat Nasr
            Figure 1 may serve as a point of departure for   style stamp seal (M. Golding, personal comm.).
 i        our discussion. Prepared by this writer for a chap­  ial from c. 3000 B.C. are greatly surpassed in
                                                              The scant references and archaeological mater­
          ter on the Gulf in the forthcoming edition of
          Chronologies in Old World Archaeology, it briefly   number when we move into the early third millen­
 i        summarizes both literary and archaeological evi­   nium, known in southern Mesopotamian as the
          dence for relations between southern Mesopota­
                                                             Early Dynastic period. Dilmun is mentioned in
          mian and the Gulf from the Late Uruk period (c.   both economic and lexical texts from Fara (ancient
 i        3400 - 3000 B.C.) down to the end of the Larsa    Suruppak), at Kish, in the inscriptions of Ur-
          dynasty (c. 1763 B.C.). Several problems are illus­
                                                            nariSe, Lugalanda, and Urukagina (see Edzard et
          trated in the chart. First, it should be noted that,   al. 1977 for full references), and in the recently
          contrary to general opinion (e.g. Cornwall 1952 :   discovered monolingual lexical lists from Ebla
 i        Dilmun in a Mesopotamian source is not the Ur-    (Pettinato 1981 : 389). It is here that we face dif­
          137; Bibby 1969 : 47), the earliest reference to
                                                            ficulties in deciding where the Early Dynastic
          nanSe of Lagash inscription (c. 2520 B.C.). Dil­  Sumerians located Dilmun, however, for it
 i        mun is already attested in the so-called “Jamdat   appears that on Bahrain itself there is an hiatus
                                                            between the Al-Markh terminal Ubaid/Qatar D
          Nasr” texts from Jamdat Nasr (c. 3000 B.C.) •
          (Vaiman 1974 : 26), and may also be present in    assemblages, and the earliest levels of City I on the
          the still earlier archaic!texts of Uruk IV date from   Qal'at. It is possible that the population which
 i        Warka (M.W. Green, personal comm.). At this       used the late “stone age” assemblages mentioned
          time (late fourth millennium B.C.) it is difficult to  above existed into the mid-third millennium, and


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