climatic change and the onset of aridity may have brought about the end of this phase of settlement, as little archaeological evidence exists from the succeeding millennium. the settlement of the region picks up again in the period of dilmun in the early 3rd millennium. known records from uruk refer to a place called dilmun, associated in several occasions with copper and in later period it was a source of imported woods in southern mesopotamia. a number of scholars have suggested that dilmun originally designated the eastern province of saudi arabia, notably linked with the major dilmunite settlements of umm an-nussi and umm ar-ramadh in the interior and tarout on the coast. it is likely that tarout island was the main port and the capital of dilmun. mesopotamian inscribed clay tablets suggests that, in the early period of dilmun, a form of hierarchical organized political structure existed. in 1966 an earthworks in tarout exposed ancient burial field that yielded a large impressive statue dating to the dilmunite period (mid 3rd millennium bc). the statue was locally made under strong mesopotamian influence on the artistic principle of dilmun.