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This is not the end of our story, however. For at of Nabonidus (Cornwall 1953 : 138, note 25), the
about the time that the third dynasty of Ur in name appears to have been Hcllcnizcd as Tylos (or
Mesopotamia was nearing its end, a Dilmunite Tyros). A remarkable reflection of the ancient
program of colonization appears to have been Akkadian name is preserved, however, in the
initiated. Now, for the first time, we find traces of Synodicon Orientate, a Syriac manuscript of 585
habitation on the island of Failaka, off the Kuwait A.D. which contains a letter to the Ncstorian
mainland, and conveniently these can be dated by Bishop of Darin (on Tarut). Darin is described as
the presence of an Ur HI and a post-Akkadian being in the neighbourhood of Tlvn, which Eduard
cylinder seal just above virgin soil in two trenches Sachau read as Telun (Sachau 1915:24), but I
opened by the Danish expedition in the late which Bruno Meissner (Meissner 1917: 202) and
1950's. The earliest levels, however, are pure City Fritz Hommel (Hommel 1926 : 1031) suggested
II, with pottery and seals of the same sort found in was Tilvun or Tilwun. These latter names, they
City II levels on Bahrain. It appears therefore that pointed out, were strongly reminiscent of Akka­
Failaka was colonized around 2000 B.C. by people dian Tilmun.
from Dilmun, most likely Bahrain itself. Failaka But does all of this shifting of names make any
!’
thus entered the community known to the sense today ? Or, are these just machinations in an
Mesopotamian population as Dilmun. academic game of hide and seek ? Perhaps a more
The subsequent history of Dilmun in the second modern example of exactly this sort of name
millennium, and the role of the Kassites is unclear changing will show that such shifts do take place,
(cf. Cornwall 1952). On Bahrain the City III or indeed have taken place recently in exactly the
Kassite period is not well-documented, whereas it area we have been discussing.
appears to be a flourishing time on Failaka (cf. Already in the late pre-Jslamic period, roughly I
Hojlund 1981). Is it possible that at this time, the contemporary with the Sasanian era in
mid-second millennium, Failaka surpassed Mesopotamian and Iran, the name Bahrain was
Bahrain in importance and eventually took over used (e.g. in Tabari) for the eastern coastal region
the role of the “capital” of Bahrain ? This is a of Arabia, the area later known as al-Hasa and
possibility, but one which would be hard to prove, today called the Eastern Province. In the early
and unfair to press, given the size of exposed City Islamic era the name was used with even wider i
III levels on Bahrain with which the contemporary connotations, identifying the entire coastal main­
Failaka strata may compared. If such were the land area from Kuwait to Oman (Thilo 1958 : 34).
case, however, we would have an interesting Awal or Owal was used in Islamic times for the
phenomenon in the development of Dilmun, not main island of modern Bahrain, and was still in use
unlike that which we find in Mesopotamian his­ in the nineteenth century. Lorimer noted that in
tory. Many scholars have pointed to the progres­ 1908 the name Awal was “disused, but remem­
sive northward movement of power centers in bered” (Lorimer 1908 : 186). Such eminent geog­
Mesopotamian history, beginning in the south­ raphers as Karl Ritter, writing in 1846, and Alois
ernmost region, ancient Sumer; moving subse­ Sprenger, writing in 1875, both refer to Awal or ii
quently northward in the later third millennium to Owal, noting that the name Bahrain had by then
Akkad in northern Babylonia, around modern come to be used popularly for the islands as
Baghdad; and finally reaching Assyria in the opposed to the mainland. Thus, we see that the
northeastern part of modern Iraq. This movement name Bahrain, used in pre-Islamic and early
was primarily linked to control of fluvial water for Islamic times to identify the eastern Arabian lit­
irrigation, while our case is based on different, toral, was eventually taken on by the islands which
probably mercantile, motives. Yet it is possible to today bear the name. I would suggest that an exact
i ask whether Dilmun's history shows a similar pat­ parallel to this situation can be found in the trans-
*
tern. Was its earliest center in eastern Arabia, ferral of the name Dilmun fro» l eastern Arabia to i
followed by Bahrain, followed by Failaka ? This is the Bahrain islands over 3000 years earlier.
- perhaps an hypothesis to which future research In the end, I hope that this brief discussion of
may address itself. Dilmun has shown how important a close study of i
! In the Neo-Assyrian period the Tilmun of Sar- the name's usage through time can be. Accepting
gon II's inscriptions must have been on Bahrain the identity of Dilmun with modern Bahrain
(City IV), for there is no material of this date on should not mean that we cease to investigate prob­
Failaka, and eastern Arabia has little more than a lems connected with the history of the name. II
seal or two (James 1969 : 51) which might fall in Rather, such investigations may lead to the discov­
this time slot. Following the last cuneiform refer­ ery of fresh information and exciting new ques­
ence to Tilmun in an inscription from the 11 th year tions.

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