Kuwait is a sovereign state in Western Asia located at the head of the Persian Gulf. The geographical region of Kuwait has been occupied by humans since antiquity, particularly due to its strategic location at the head of the Persian Gulf.
Following the post-glacial flooding of the Persian Gulf basin, debris from the TigrisβEuphrates river formed a substantial delta, creating most of the land in present-day Kuwait and establishing the present coastlines. During the Ubaid period BC , Kuwait was the central site of interaction between the peoples of Mesopotamia and Neolithic Eastern Arabia , [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] including Bahra 1 and site H3 in Subiya. Mesopotamians first settled in the Kuwaiti island of Failaka in B.
Despite the scholarly consensus that ancient Dilmun encompasses three modern locations - the eastern littoral of Arabia from the vicinity of modern Kuwait to Bahrain; the island of Bahrain; the island of Failaka of Kuwait - few researchers have taken into account the radically different geography of the basin represented by the Persian Gulf before its reflooding as sea levels rose about BCE.
During the Dilmun era from ca. After the Dilmun civilization, Failaka was inhabited by the Kassites of Mesopotamia , [ 30 ] and was formally under the control of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon. Most of present-day Kuwait is still archaeologically unexplored. His suggestion about the Pishon River was supported by James A.
Sauer of the American Center of Oriental Research. After an apparent abandonment of about seven centuries, the bay of Kuwait was repopulated during the Achaemenid period c. According to Strabo and Arrian , Alexander the Great named Failaka Ikaros because it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape.
