Q: When Was Khazad-dûm Built?
ANSWER: According to The Silmarillion and its various source texts, the Dwarves of Middle-earth built Khazad-dûm sometime early in the Elder Days before the Rising of the Sun. Although Tolkien does not say which of the great Dwarf-mansions was built first, Durin woke alone in Khazad-dûm before any of the other Dwarf-fathers (and Dwarf-mothers) awoke in their own places. Durin could not have become the king of a great nation until sometime after the other six Dwarf-realms were formed, for he would have needed to find a wife and followers among those Dwarf-realms.
Tolkien seems to have changed his mind more than once about the most ancient history of the Dwarves, which so far as we know he never really put into fully written form. It seems according to one source that the Dwarves may actually have come together at Gundabad and there built up their numbers until dispersing across Middle-earth to establish their various kingdoms.
One must fall back upon pure speculation in addressing the nature of early Dwarven society. With only 7 founding families, of which one would be closely related by blood to one of the first 6, it would be reasonable for the Dwarves of all 7 houses to live among Durin’s folk, and they were all probably closely related to each other for many generations. Only after the Dwarf-realms were established would their populations have drifted apart “by blood and lineage”, so to speak.
And then, of course, the Petty-Dwarves of Beleriand — descended from outcasts who left the original seven civilizations — constituted an 8th group of Dwarves. But the Petty-dwarves had no line of great kings and they died out before the end of the First Age of the Sun in any event.
The hypothesis presented above suggests that Khazad-dûm could thus be contemporary with the ancient Dwarven cities of Nogrod and Belegost, and perhaps the other four great Dwarf-mansions as well. But unless some previously unknown Tolkien text comes to light we will probably never have a canonical or even semi-canonical history of early Dwarven culture in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
See Also
Did Sauron Influence Balin to Reclaim Khazad-dûm?
Were There Ever Three Concurrent Kings in Khazad-dûm?
What Are the Nameless Things Gandalf Refers to Below Khazad-dûm?
What Happened to the West-gate after Eregion Fell to Sauron?
Why Did the Balrog Never Leave Moria?
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