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This thesis addresses the archaeology of Kuwait from 13000BC to the 18 th century AD, to further understand its significances within the Arabian Gulf and wider world. Kuwait has witness many diverse cultures By comparing for the first time the archaeology, geography, and historical sources, I illustrate that this region has been continual inhabited and used as an important hub of social networks since its beginnings. By introducing the Ubaid civilization and their relations with other regions, we witness the first exchange and trade strategies in Kuwait. By looking at the burial mound phenomenon in Kuwait we witness a hiatus of permanent settlements and a time when people were more nomadic. The impact of these mounds resonated into later periods. Petroleum based substances play a key role in modern Kuwait; the Ubaid and the Dilmun first developed the usage of bitumen, and here we see how that created links with others in the world. Ideas move as well as people, and I demonstrate the proto-Hellenistic and Hellenistic periods in Kuwait to illustrate influences from the Mediterranean. Modern Kuwait is Islamic, and here we will investigate how and why and the speeds at which Christianity gave way to Islam, and the impacts of a different religion on the region. In highlighting Kuwait’s past, I show how the state became one of the most democratic and diverse places in the Arabian Gulf