Dr. Steffen Laursen

So probably the ancient Dilmanites didn't call them their own city Dilman to begin with.

They called it Agaru.

I think we have to imagine it being very extensive.

We have textual records from Ur mentioning the transshipment of up to 18 tons of copper in just one ship.

And that is just a random, the preserved text.

So it could have been on an even larger scale.

So at this point, I think our best way to evaluate it is by looking at the explosion of wealth in Bahrain.

The fact that this relatively small island, the size of Jersey, could produce a huge city and all these monuments.

There is approximately 100,000 burial mounds built in this period on Bahrain Island.

That just testifies to something extraordinarily happening.

Yes, he was.

And we have these different documents from his house.

And, you know, what happens is the testimony of a dispute he had with people he was exchanging copper with, and they are complaining that he has tricked them.

And from them, it's, you know, it's very relatable because we can all see that this copper trader, Yarnasi, he was a, you know, he was a con man and he made someone, you know, pay good money for bad copper and he wasn't giving in.

It's so relatable to us today.

Yeah, Ernaz's merchant title was Alik Tilmun.

And that literally means he who goes to Dillman.

So that was his game.

He was sailing back and forth or sending his people back and forth and running this trade.

So definitely the copper he was trading had come to Dilmun from Southeast Arabia and then went to Ur.