Dilmun: Difference between revisions

[[File:1395208_913872565293869_1163106659550093010_n.jpg|alt=|right|thumb|The map of Dilmun and Mesopotamia.]]

The '''Dilmun''' civilization (3200 BC — 600 BC) was an important trading centre which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes.<ref name="hoj">{{cite journal|author=Jesper Eidema, Flemming Højlundb |date=1993 |title=Trade or diplomacy? Assyria and Dilmun in the eighteenth century BC|journal=World Archaeology |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=441–448 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1993.9980218}}</ref> The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land.<ref>{{cite book|ref=harv|last=Rice|first=Michael|title=Egypt's Making: The Origins of Ancient Egypt 5000-2000 BC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fC6DAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA230|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-49263-3}}, page 230</ref> Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-22596270|title=Bahrain digs unveil one of oldest civilizations|publisher=BBC|work=BBC News|date=2013-05-21|last1=Smith|first1=Sylvia}}</ref><ref name="uns">{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1192 |title=Qal'at al-Bahrain – Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun |publisher=UNESCO |accessdate=17 August 2011}}</ref> The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[5] The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story.<ref name="ed">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwddi0p4jQkC |title=Getting Back Into the Garden of Eden|author=Edward Conklin|page=10}}</ref> Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. The adjective "Dilmun" is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun. It was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium.<ref name="Crawford">{{cite book |title=Dilmun and its Gulf neighbours |last=Crawford |first=Harriet E. W. |authorlink= |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-58348-0 }}</ref> Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 2000 BC and 1800 BC because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf. In 600 BC, the Babylonians and later the Persians added Dilmun to their empires.