Dilmun, the Sumerian "Paradise," is not Bahrain or Qurnah, its Tell al Lahm East of Eridu?
02 January 2004 (Revisions through 09 June 2007)
Please click here for _my map_ showing the location of the Garden of Eden in Mesopotamia based on my research into the Epic of Gilgamesh (Enkidu being Adam, Shamhat being Eve).
Map of lower Mesopotamia showing the mouths of Euphrates and Tigris (The Greek word Tigris, which is from Persian Tigra, is the biblical Hiddekel, Arabic Diglat) rivers joining each other at QURNAH, where some Arab legends have the Garden of Eden located at. Professor Archibald H. Sayce (Professor of Assyriology, at Oxford University, born 1845 died 1933) in a 1916 article for a scholarly journal, attempting to identify biblical NOD, east of Eden, noted that the Sumerians called the fabulous garden of Dilmun, GUGGIRINNA Perhaps QURNAH preserves Guggirinna? In ancient myths Enki lived at Eridu on the edge of the marshlands and enjoyed punting his boat amongst the swamp reeds of lower Mesopotamia. He also lived at Dilmun with his wife Ninhursag. Some scholars locate the island of Dilmun "at the mouth of the rivers" whence the Mesopotamian Flood survivor, Utnapishtim and wife (Noah and Wife of the Bible) was placed, enjoying immortality with the island of Failaka where the Shatt al Arab enters the Persian Gulf
(cf. for the map, Georges Roux. Ancient Iraq. London. Penguin Books. [1964] 1992). Ur of the Chaldees (Tell el Mughayir) where Terah and Abraham lived is just north of Eridu, the principal shrine of the god of wisdom and freshwaters called Enki or Ea. It was Enki/Ea who warned the Mesopotamian Noah to build an Ark to avoid the Flood being sent by the gods to destroy the world. In another myth Enki/Ea also confounded the one language of mankind into a babel of many tongues. He also gave Adapa personifying mankind in the Adapa and Southwind myth, great wisdom but denied him immortality as in the Adam and Eve myth. Uruk is biblical Erech (Ge 10:10) the home of Gilgamesh.
Below, a map showing Ur of the Chaldees, home of Terah and Abraham according to the Bible, identified by some scholars with Tell Mughayir (Muqayyar). Nearby is Shuruppak the city in which the god Ea (Sumerian: Enki) appeared to warn the Flood hero Ziusudra (also called Atrahasis or Utnapishtim) of the coming Flood to destroy all of mankind. The marshlands are just east of Eridu, where Enki/Ea enjoyed punting his boat. The Sumerian "paradise" called Dilmun, set aside for the Flood survivor and wife was located at the "mouth of the rivers", apparently the marshlands into which the Tigris and Euphrates empty into east of Eridu. Modern Qurnah, not on this map, is east of Ur or Eridu, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet each other at the marshes. (cf. p. 83. "The Cities in the Sumerian King List, Early Dynastic III Period." Michael Roaf. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York. Facts on File. 1990. ISBN 0-8160-2218-6). Note: According to Sumerian sources Eridu lay on the "edge of the Sea." So the below map showing the Sea's edge to the east of Eridu is in error, the edge of the Sea should be at Eridu. In the 4th-2nd millenniums BCE the Euphrate's "mouth" was _not_ at Qurnah, it was at or near Eridu at the edge of the "Sea." For the Mesopotamian Noah (Atrahasis) to be placed in Dilmun which lies "at the mouth of the rivers," suggests for me a site just 20 miles east of Eridu, Tell al Lahm.
Sennacherib, the king of Assyria destroyed Babylon circa 659 BCE for repeated rebellions and boasted that his soldiers destroyed the city to its foundations, dumping its dust into the Euphrates river. He arrogantly claimed that when the darkended waters of the Euphrates rached "the SEA" the Dilmunites were terrified to see the darkened waters, fearing the destruction of their city if they ever rebelled. The Euphrates in Sennacherib's day flowed near Ur and on to Tell al Lahm.
15 Dec 2005 Update:
The problem in identifying Dilmun, also rendered Tilmun by some scholars with Qurnah is that I am unaware of any ancient settlement from the 4th through 1st millenniums BCE, when Dilmun appears in the records. Perhaps Dilmun/Tilmun is the site known today as Tell al Laham, 20 miles east of Eridu? (cf. above Roux's map where the site is identified as Durum, Dur-Iakin, Arabic T. Laham). However, Roaf identifies Tell al Lahm with a location called Kisiga (cf. pp. 199 & 231. Michael Roaf. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York. Facts on File. 1990).
Tell al Laham has 4th millennium BCE Sumerian burials and remains of an occupation from the 1st millennium BCE. In antiquity it would have lain in the midst of a great inland "sea" formed by the discharge of the Euphrates river and its various ancient channels or branches, said "sea" today having receded via thousands of years of silting-up to the present day Hawr al Hammar Lagoon. Ancient Sumerian texts mention Eridu as being "at the edge of the sea," and Tell al Lahm lies 20 miles east of Eridu, which would have placed it in antiquity in the midst of this sea. Hymns to Enki mention his seducing several maiden goddesses in Dilmun which is described as being in a "marshland setting" and praised for its "fish-filled lagoons and date palms." Dilmun is today identified with the island Of Bahrain (Bahrein) in the Arab Gulf (Persian Gulf) but it is not a marshland, nor does it have fish-filled lagoons or a river. In the Enki hymns he espies several maidens near a river's bank in Dilmun, gets into his boat, glides down "a river" and acosts them at the river's bank, in the marshes. Another problem in identifying Dilmun with Bahrain is that it was not settled until circa 2200 BCE according to archaeological findings, yet Dilmun appears in Sumerian records from as early as 3300 BCE (Uruk) to 2300 BCE (Tello and Lagash). In other words for almost 1000 years, 3200-2300 BCE there is no settlement at Bahrain for Sumer to trade with if Bahrain is Dilmun! Please click here for more details.
As regards "the Garden of Eden being Dilmun," further research on my part into Mesopotamian myths regarding the creation of man, reveal he is portrayed as being _created in several different locations_, Eridu (by Enki/Ea), Nippur (by Enlil/Ellil), Babylon (by Marduk/Merodach) and the steppe or flood-plains of Lower Mesopotamia near Uruk by the goddess Aruru (Enkidu of the Epic of Gilgamesh). The later location has him a NAKED savage wandering edin (Sumerian for steppe or plain) with wild animals, eating grass and lapping water like a beast. The gods take pity on man and bring him to their cities to serve them, teaching him the arts of civilization, he will tend and till their gardens next to their cities which they planted for themselves before man's creation (cf. the so-called "Eridu Genesis myth" for the details). Man is taught it is wrong to be naked like a savage animal, he must wear clothes like a god. He is shown how to grow food in irrigated gardens created by the gods for their self-nourishment (as the gods live on the earth in cities they have built in Sumer) and how to weave cloth garments to cover his nakedness. The Mesopotamian myths DO NOT PORTRAY man as being "made" and placed in Dilmun to work a god's garden. Why then, do so many scholars have Dilmun as the Mesopotamian "equivalent" of the Garden of Eden or "paradise"? The answer: Dilmun is portrayed as an "idyllic" place. Two myths exist about Dilmun: (1) The god Enki visits Dilmun and eats of the goddesss Ninhursag's plants without her permission in order "to know" them, she curses him with death. Eventually she is persuaded to change her mind. When Enki complains of his rib hurting from her earlier curse she makes a goddess called Nin-ti "lady of the rib" to heal his rib. Some scholars suspect this motif has been recast as Eve being made of Adam's rib. (2) The Mesopotamian equivalent of the Bible's Noah called variously Ziusudra, Atrahasis or Utnapishtim and his wife after the Flood is settled in Dilmun and given immortality. They will not have to toil for their food like the rest of mankind in the gods' city-gardens of Akkad and Sumer. This motif suggests for some scholars Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden living an "idyllic" life having access to the the Tree of Life bestowing immortality.
As noted above, there are several pre-biblical Edenic prototypes, Dilmun, and three locations where man is made to be an agricultural servant of the gods, working in their city-gardens: Eridu, Nippur and Babylon, all of which are located in edin-the-floodplain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the 4th through 2nd milleniums BCE "the mouth of the rivers" (the Euphrates and Tigris) where Ziusudra was placed in Dilmun, was near Eridu and Ur _not_ Qurnah. Thus Dilmun should lie east of Eridu and Ur at Tell al Lahm. Please click here for maps showing the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as being near Eridu and Ur during the 4th-2nd millenniums BCE.
Please click here for my article titled "Why a NAKED Adam in Eden?" for more details on the Garden of Eden's _many_ locations.
