Archaeologists discover second Bronze Age Temple in Kuwait

Archaeologists in Kuwait uncovered the remains of a Bronze Age temple on Failaka Island.

This discovery adds to a previous find on the same island from only one year earlier. Both structures belonged to the kingdom of Dilmun, an ancient trade hub that operated between the fourth and first millennia BCE. The team found the two temples superimposed on top of one another at a site known as Tell F6.

Researchers believe the later temple was built as an intentional modification of the older structure. This construction style resembles how Herod the Great expanded the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The site also contains two other temples and a large administrative building. The kingdom of Dilmun controlled ocean trade routes connecting Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. While the people of Dilmun shared cultural similarities with Mesopotamia, including a dialect of Akkadian, they maintained a unique pantheon of gods.

The region appears in Mesopotamian myths as the home of Utnapishtim and as a site of world creation.