ABSTRACT
To set the Gulf, its islands and the coastal lands of eastern Arabia into a coherent historical and cultural perspective it is helpful to look first at the structures and mores of the societies which are immediately contiguous to them, and which exercised a notable influence on the region throughout the course of its history. Of these lands by far the most important and influential was Mesopotamia, the Land of the Two Rivers. Iran, Inner Arabia, the Indus Valley and Oman were all, to varying degrees, to exert an influence on the character of ancient Bahrain and the Gulf, but none of these seems to have approached Mesopotamia in the depth of its impact and its enduring quality.
