Locating Dilmun
As of 2008, archaeologists have failed to find a site in existence during the time from 3300 BC (Uruk IV) to 556 BC (Neo-Babylonian Era), when Dilmun (Telmun) appears in texts. Despite the scholarly consensus that ancient Dilmun encompasses three modern locations: (1) the eastern littoral of Arabia from the vicinity of modern Kuwait to Bahrain; (2) the island of Bahrain; (3) the island of Failaka east of Kuwait, few have taken into account the radically different geography of the basin represented by the Persian Gulf before its reflooding as sea levels rose about 6000 BCE; the earliest known site is Qal'at al-Bahrain which is dated no earlier than c. 2200 BC according to Flemming Hojlund. Failaka was settled after 2000 BC following a drop in sea level. No settlements exist in the Arabian littoral 3300-2000 BC according to Hojlund. Thus, despite Dilmun's appearance in ancient texts dating from 3300-2300 BC archaeologists have failed to find a site for Dilmun dating to this period. Hymns regarding the Sumerian god Enki of Eridu in Sumer speak of his assaulting and deflowering Dilmun's maidens as they stand by a river bank, he reaching out of nearby marsh to clasp them to his bosom. Of Bahrain, Failaka, and the eastern littoral of Arabia, none possess marshes and a riverbank. Dilmun, furthermore, is said to lie "in the east where the sun rises," a situation that does not apply to the eastern Arabian littoral, Failaka or Bahrain, all of which lie south of Sumer and Eridu.
Theresa Howard-Carter (1987) realizing that these three locations possess no archaeological evidence of a settlement dating 3300-2300 BC, has proposed that Dilmun of this era might be a still unidentified tell near the Shatt al-Arab between modern-day Qurnah and Basra in modern day Iraq. In favor of Howard-Carter's proposal, she noted that this area does lie to the east of Sumer ("where the sun rises"), and the riverbank where Dilmun's maidens would have been accosted aligns with the Shat al-Arab which is in the midst of marshes. The "mouth of the rivers" where Dilmun was said to lie is for her the union of the Tigris and Euphrates at Qurnah.
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