Dr. Lloyd Weeks

They're connected with Dilmun.

They're connected with Babylonia.

Absolutely.

Some of that trade is overland through the Zagros and its various valleys.

And some of that trade is undoubtedly through the Gulf as well.

I mean, Iranian societies are also connected with South Asia and the Indus Valley.

They're connected with Central Asia.

So it's a very interconnected world during the bronze age with ebbs and flows during different periods.

I don't think we have any evidence that would tell us about any settlements directly around the Strait of Hormuz that could have controlled trade through that location.

I think technically that was probably beyond the capacity of any communities in that zone.

In fact, we don't know of very many coastal communities from southern Iran from the Bronze Age.

Just in the last 10 years or so, excellent work by Alireza Khosrazadeh on Keshem Island has identified the first Bronze Age site.

Settlements and burials that we know from Keshem Island is very large, an important island that's directly at pretty much the Strait of Hormuz on the northern side and currently owned by Iran.

So a few sites are beginning to appear, but even if we move on to mainland Iran and look at the coastal area, there's really not much known around the Strait of Hormuz in terms of coastal sites.

It's not until you get beyond that first mountain range into areas like Rudan and then further north into Jiroft that you see very large and complex Bronze Age sites.

But they were still engaged with the Gulf trade.

They weren't just positioned directly on the Gulf.

Absolutely.

I think

I wouldn't call it Dilmun in miniature because I don't think the water resources are quite as strong as they are in Dilmun, but we are certainly looking at an area that within Southeastern Arabia has more than the average amount of rainfall, and which also, thanks to recharge of its aquifers and that rainfall being captured from the mountains behind Shimul, it's got good groundwater as well.