The search for the mythical country of Dilmun
The search for the mythical country of Dilmun
It began with the story of thousands of burial mounds on the island of Bahrain. The British archaeologist Geoffrey Bibby (1917–2001), who worked for an Iraqi oil company, had seen the mounds in the desert landscape and was convinced that the island held great archaeological treasures, perhaps even the key to Dilmun, the legendary country from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The myth had long held a tantalising allure for adventurers and researchers, but no one knew exactly where to look for Dilmun.
Bibby had a Danish wife and was affiliated with the Prehistoric Museum in Aarhus. At a dinner party, he told his supervisor, Peter Vilhelm Glob (1911–1985), about Bahrain. Glob promptly replied, ‘Let’s launch an expedition.’ Thus began one of the most remarkable projects of Danish archaeology – the Danish Archaeological Bahrain Expedition.
In December 1953, the pair went on a reconnaissance trip. Glob brought a falcon as a gift to the ruler of the island, Sheik Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifah, and gained his trust. This marked the beginning of a close cooperation between Danish archaeology and the Gulf region. The excavations at Qala'at al-Bahrain took place from 1955 to 1960.
Explore the book 'From Yeast to Universe'
This chapter is an excerpt from the book 'From Yeast to Universe – Danish Basic Research Supported by the Carlsberg Foundation: 150 Highlights from 150 Years', published by Strandberg Publishing to mark the Carlsberg Foundation’s 150th anniversary. The book offers a kaleidoscopic insight into 150 examples of significant and memorable Danish basic research activities supported by the Carlsberg Foundation over a century and a half. The 150 examples have been selected by 25 Danish researchers.
The extensive excavations of the burial mounds provided new insights into social structures in the Dilmun culture. Variations in grave forms, grave goods and monumental structures indicated a society with clear social differentiation and long continuity. Thus, the burial mounds could be regarded as traces of an elitist society, where power and kinship were marked by monumental graves and burial rituals that continued over several centuries.
The finds soon led to new invitations. In 1958, the Kuwaiti government invited Glob to excavate the island of Failaka (the ancient island of Ikaros). By 1963, the Danish archaeologists had uncovered ruins of a Hellenistic temple, a fortified city and trading stations documenting the island’s role as a link between Mesopotamia and the southern Gulf coast.
The painstaking task of analysing the finds fell to Glob’s colleagues at the museum in Aarhus, among them Poul Kjærum (1926–2010), the later chief curator at Moesgaard Museum, who handled much of the scientific documentation and publishing.
One of the most significant results was finding evidence for Bahrain’s role as a hub in an extensive trading network. The finds showed that the island connected Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley through maritime trade and served as an interim store and trans-shipment site. This altered the understanding of global connections during the Bronze Age and revealed the area as an active centre, not a peripheral zone.
Glob’s communication skills were clearly expressed in the 1968 book 'Al-Bahrain: De danske ekspeditioner til oldtidens Dilmun' ('Al-Bahrain: The Danish Expeditions to Ancient Dilmun'). With his usual flair for storytelling and drama, he described the excavations as an encounter with the paradise described in the Gilgamesh myth.
Some scholars felt that Glob had gone too far in identifying Bahrain with the mythical Dilmun civilisation and that his presentation relied more on intuition and symbolism than on firm archaeological evidence. Since then, based in part on the finds from Glob’s Bahrain Expedition, some archaeologists have pointed out that the Dilmun culture probably refers to a network of trading stations in the Gulf rather than a single location.
Grant
Grant years: 1954–1997 (first and latest) Purpose: Includes excavations, archaeological studies, processing of material and publishing
Today, the Danish Archaeological Bahrain Expedition stands as a monument to both Glob’s visionary energy and his fusion of science and storytelling, which was typical of its time. It was a project that put Danish archaeology on the map but also a reminder that even the biggest discoveries require patience and hard work to find their final form.
The chapter is written by Kristian Hvidtfelt.
