Page 76 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

WITHIN THE CITIES OF DILMUN THE SAME CIVILIZED LIFE WENT ON
AS IN CONTEMPORARY SUMER. THIS SCENE FROM A SEAL FOUND AT

FAILAKA, KUWAIT, SHOWS A MUSICIAN PLAYING A HARP OF THE TYPE
FOUND IN THE ROYAL GRAVES AT UR, WITH A SOUND-BOX IN THE FORM
OF A BULL’S BODY AND ORNAMENTED WITH A BULL’S HEAD.

month’s voyage away to the east. There is lively talk among the
crews in pidgin-Sumerian and scraps o£ half the languages of the

east, while the captain is away within the walls of the city con­
tacting his agent and arranging for the stowage of his cargo.

Many of the crews know each other well. Not only have they
met before in Dilmun; the ships from Ur have themselves sailed,
on occasion, to Makan, and both Makan and Meluhhan ships not

infrequently sail to Mesopotamian ports. And Dilmun-owned and
Dilmun-manned ships sail from here to all ports of the known

world.
For the fact of the matter is that the civilized peoples whom
we have already met, in Egypt and Mesopotamia and the Indus

valley, were essentially farming communities, in spite of their