Looking for Dilmun

The Danish Archaeologists and the Lost Kingdom

In 1953, the Danish archaeologist P.V. Glob captures a falcon in Greenland and presents it as a gift to the Sheikh of Bahrain. A symbolic gesture that becomes the starting point for one of the most remarkable, and almost forgotten, chapters in Danish research history.

Together with his young English colleague Geoffrey Bibby, a former agent in British intelligence, Glob embarks on an expedition that will come to reshape our understanding of the ancient Middle East.

On the small desert island of Bahrain, they uncover traces of the legendary civilisation of Dilmun, an advanced and highly developed kingdom mentioned in Babylonian cuneiform texts, yet lost to history for more than 4,000 years.

The discovery places Denmark at the centre of international archaeology and lays the foundation for a lasting research partnership between Denmark and the Arab Gulf states. For decades, new Danish expeditions follow in the footsteps of Glob and Bibby, and excavations continue to this day.

In the documentary The Quest for Dilmun – The Danish Archaeologists and the Lost Kingdom, archaeologist Steffen Terp Laursen takes us back to the burial mounds and temple ruins of Bahrain and Kuwait, where he carries forward the legacy of the Danish pioneers.

The film weaves together seventy years of research, archival footage and new discoveries into a compelling story of adventure, friendship and science, and of how the vision of two Danish researchers in 1953 continues to shape our understanding of the cradle of civilisation.

Moesgaard & DR2, March 2026