mesopotamia invention of the sailboat

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Mesopotamian Reed Boats Changed the Stone Age

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• Ancient Civilizations
• Excavations
• History of Animal and Plant Domestication
• M.A., Anthropology, University of Iowa
• B.Ed., Illinois State University

Mesopotamian reed boats constitute the earliest known evidence for deliberately constructed sailing ships, dated to the early Neolithic Ubaid culture of Mesopotamia , about 5500 B.C.E. The small, masted Mesopotamian boats are believed to have facilitated minor but significant long-distance trade between the emerging villages of the Fertile Crescent and the Arabian Neolithic communities of the Persian Gulf. Boatmen followed the Tigris and Euphrates rivers down into the Persian Gulf and along the coasts of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar. The first evidence of Ubaidian boat traffic into the Persian Gulf was recognized in the mid-20th century when examples of Ubaidian pottery were found in scores of coastal Persian gulf sites.

However, it is best to keep in mind that the history of sea-faring is quite ancient. Archaeologists are convinced that both the human settlement of Australia (about 50,000 years ago) and the Americas (about 20,000 years ago) must have been assisted by some sort of watercraft to assist moving people along the coastlines and across large bodies of water. It is quite likely that we will find older ships than those of Mesopotamia. Scholars are not even necessarily certain that Ubaid boat-making originated there. But at present, the Mesopotamian boats are the oldest known.

Ubaid Boats, the Mesopotamian Ships

Archaeologists have assembled quite a bit of evidence about the ships themselves. Ceramic boat models have been found at numerous Ubaid sites, including Ubaid, Eridu , Oueili, Uruk , Uqair, and Mashnaqa, as well as at the Arabian Neolithic sites of H3 located on the northern coast of Kuwait and Dalma in Abu Dhabi. Based on the boat models, the boats were similar in form to bellums (spelled bellams in some texts) used today on the Persian Gulf: small, canoe-shaped boats with upturned and sometimes elaborately decorated bow tips.

Unlike wooden planked bellams, Ubaid ships were made from bundles of reeds roped together and covered with a thick layer of bituminous material for water-proofing. An impression of string on one of several bitumen slabs found at H3 suggests that the boats may have had a lattice of ropes stretched across the hull, similar to that used in later Bronze Age ships from the region.

In addition, bellams are usually pushed along by poles, and at least some of the Ubaid boats were apparently had masts to enable them to hoist sails to catch the wind. An image of a boat on a reworked Ubaid 3 sherd (a ceramic fragment) at the H3 site in coastal Kuwait had two masts.

Trade Items

Very few explicitly Ubaidian artifacts have been found in the Arabian Neolithic sites apart from bitumen chunks, black-on-buff pottery, and boat effigies, and those are fairly rare. Trade items might have been perishables, perhaps textiles or grain, but the trade efforts were likely minimal, consisting of small boats dropping in at Arabian coastal towns. It was a fairly long distance between the Ubaid communities and the Arabian coastline, approximately 450 kilometers (280 miles) between Ur and Kuwait. Trade does not seem to have played a significant role in either culture.

It is possible that the trade included bitumen, a type of asphalt. Bitumen tested from Early Ubaid Chogha Mish, Tell el'Oueili, and Tell Sabi Abyad all come from a wide variety of different sources. Some come from northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and southern Turkey. Bitumen from H3 was identified as having an origin at Burgan Hill in Kuwait. Some of the other Arabian Neolithic sites in the Persian Gulf imported their bitumen from the Mosul area of Iraq, and it is possible that boats were involved in that. Lapis lazuli, turquoise, and copper were exotics in the Mesopotamian Ubaid sites that potentially could have been imported, in small amounts, using boat traffic.

Boat Repair and Gilgamesh

Bitumen caulking of the reed boats was made by applying a heated mixture of bitumen, vegetal matter, and mineral additives and allowing it to dry and cool to a tough, elastic covering. Unfortunately, that had to be replaced frequently. Hundreds of slabs of reed-impressed bitumen have been recovered from several sites in the Persian Gulf. It may be that the H3 site in Kuwait represents a place where boats were repaired, although no additional evidence (such as woodworking tools) was recovered to support that.

Interestingly, reed boats are an important part of Near Eastern mythologies. In the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh myth,  Sargon the Great of Akkad is described as having floated as an infant in a bitumen-coated reed basket down the Euphrates River. This must be the original form of the legend found in the Old Testament book of Exodus where the infant Moses floated down the Nile in a reed basket daubed with bitumen and pitch.

Carter, Robert A. (Editor). "Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East." Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, September 15, 2010.

Connan, Jacques. "An overview of bitumen trade in the Near East from the Neolithic (c.8000 BC) to the early Islamic period." Thomas Van de Velde, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, Wiley Online Library, April 7, 2010.

Oron, Asaf. "Early Maritime Activity on the Dead Sea: Bitumen Harvesting and the Possible Use of Reed Watercraft." Ehud Galili, Gideon Hadas, et al., Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Volume 10, Issue 1, The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System, April 2015.

Stein, Gil J. "Oriental Institute 2009-2010 Annual Report." Oriental Institute, The University of Chicago, 2009-2010, Chicago, IL.

Wilkinson, T. J. (Editor). "Models of Mesopotamian Landscapes: How small-scale processes contributed to the growth of early civilizations." BAR International Series, McGuire Gibson (Editor), Magnus Widell (Editor), British Archaeological Reports, October 20, 2013.

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Ancient Mesopotamia Sailboats: An Introduction

• Categories : Marine history
• Tags : Marine engineering

Five thousand years ago Mesopotamians started using sailing boats. Since Mesopotamia was situated between two famous rivers, namely the Euphrates and the Tigris, they needed water transportation for travel and trade. Some of the important items they are credited with inventing include wheels, chariots, sailboats and cuneiform (the earliest form of writing). These are just some of the contributions by the Mesopotamians to the modern world. All this and more was around four to five thousand years ago. Let’s explore more about the important role of sailboats in their culture.

Why Did the Mesopotamians Need Sailboats?

A civilization flourishes based on its trade and commerce, and Mesopotamia was no exception. They wanted to set up trade relationships with nearby cities and countries. These were in the days before road routes were built making transportation of goods by land routes hectic and difficult. Therefore, they had to figure out an alternative mode of transportation for goods and people. This came in the form of water transportation, and thus the first boats were invented.

They were simple wooden boats that would carry people and goods downstream and then back upstream. But boats need people to navigate and guide them across rough waters, so the solution of having a vessel carry their goods and people had to be refined. Thus sailboats were invented. They were primitive in design, but the sailboats helped the Mesopotamians in trade and commerce.

They also helped in irrigation and fishing. Mesopotamians had mastered the art of fishing. They would go downstream using sailboats, cast their nets, stay, wait and return with the catch. Thus the sailboats of Mesopotamia helped the Mesopotamians establish trade relationships with other cities and countries, making them one of most famous civilizations to flourish and change the course of history with their inventions.

How were the Sailboats of Mesopotamians Made?

The sailboats of Mesopotamia were simple in design; the sails were square in shape and made of cloth. The angle and direction of the sails coul not be changed. If the wind blew in the direction that the sailboats desired to go, things went well. If that wasn’t the case, they had to wait for the wind to blow in their favor!

The hull or the body of the boat was made of wood. Trees were cut and made into planks, and the planks were roughly shaped and joined together to make the body of the boat. Though they couldn’t handle lots of cargo or people at a given time, they could do better than what other sailing vessels of that time had to offer. The design work they did on their sailboats provided the basis for all future sailboats, even five thousand years later.

Until the fall of Mesopotamian civilization, not many changes were made to the basic design of the sailboat. This crucial invention largely helped in making Mesopotamian civilization a great empire and civilization along with the society’s other contributions.

Mesopotamia gave the world incredible contributions like wheels, cuneiform, sailboats, glass making, textile weaving and a lot more, truly making them one of the greatest civilizations ever to walk on this planet. Their sailboats were as simple as they needed to be, but they introduced plank construction and square sails. Even though the vessels were of limited capacity, these ships revolutionized water travel. The basic design of their sailboats is still in use even today.

• Image Credit: Flickr
• Image Credit: Wikipedia

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9 Ancient Sumerian Inventions That Changed the World

By: Patrick J. Kiger

Updated: August 6, 2024 | Original: August 1, 2019

The ancient Sumerians , who flourished thousands of years ago between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what today is southern Iraq, built a civilization that in some ways was the ancient equivalent of Silicon Valley. As the late historian Samuel Noah Kramer wrote , “The people of Sumer had an unusual flair for technological invention.”

In what the Greeks later called Mesopotamia , Sumerians invented new technologies and perfected the large-scale use of existing ones. In the process, they transformed how humans cultivated food, built dwellings, communicated and kept track of information and time.

The Sumerians’ creativity was driven to an extent by their land’s lack of natural resources, according to Philip Jones, associate curator and keeper of the Babylonian section at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.

“They had few trees, almost no stone or metal,” he explains. That forced them to make ingenious use of materials such as clay—the plastic of the ancient world. They used it to make everything from bricks to pottery to tablets for writing.

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But the Sumerians’ real genius may have been organizational. They had the ability to take inventions that had been developed elsewhere and apply them on a much bigger scale. This way they could mass-produce goods such as textiles and pottery that they could then trade with other people.

As Kramer writes, there was something in the Sumerian identity that drove them to dream big and think ingeniously. “Spiritually and psychologically, they laid great stress on ambition and success, preeminence and prestige, honor and recognition,” he explains.

The Sumerians’ innovations gradually spread and led to the development of the modern technologically advanced world that we live in today. Here are some of the areas where the Sumerians left their mark.

Mass-Produced Pottery

Other ancient people made pottery by hand, but the Sumerians were the first to develop the turning wheel, a device that allowed them to mass-produce it, according to Reed Goodman , a doctoral candidate in the art and archaeology of the Mediterranean at the University of Pennsylvania. That enabled them to churn out large numbers of items such as containers for workers’ rations, sort of the ancient forerunner of Tupperware.

Jones says that it’s likely, though not 100 percent certain, that the Sumerians were the first to develop a writing system. Either way, it’s clear that they were using written communication by 2800 B.C. But they didn’t set out to write great literature or record their history, but rather to keep track of the goods that they were making and selling.

“Their very first texts are just numbers and commodities,” Jones explains. They did that with a system of pictographs , which essentially were drawings of various objects. Eventually, they began to combine pictographs to express ideas and actions. The pictographs evolved into symbols that stood for words and sounds.

Scribes used sharpened reeds to scratch the symbols into wet clay, which dried to form tablets. The system of writing became known as cuneiform, and as Kramer noted, it was borrowed by subsequent civilizations and used across the Middle East for 2,000 years.

Hydraulic Engineering

The Sumerians figured out how to collect and channel the overflow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—and the rich silt that it contained—and then use it to water and fertilize their farm fields. They designed complex systems of canals, with dams constructed of reeds, palm trunks and mud whose gates could be opened or closed to regulate the flow of water.

The Chariot 

The Sumerians didn’t invent wheeled vehicles, but they probably developed the first two-wheeled chariot in which a driver drove a team of animals, writes Richard W. Bulliet in The Wheel: Inventions and Reinventions . Goodman says that there’s evidence the Sumerians had such carts for transportation in the 3000s B.C., but they were probably used for ceremonies or by the military, rather than as a means to get around the countryside, where the rough terrain would have made wheeled travel difficult.

According to Kramer, the Sumerians invented the plow, a vital technology in farming. They even produced a manual that gave farmers detailed instructions on how to use various types of plows. And they specified the prayer that should be recited to pay homage to Ninkilim, the goddess of field rodents, in order to protect the grain from being eaten.

Textile Mills

While other cultures in the Middle East gathered wool and used it to weave fabric for clothing, the Sumerians were the first to do it on an industrial scale.

“The Sumerians’ innovation was to turn their temples into huge factories,” Goodman explains. He notes that the Sumerians were the first to cross kin lines and form larger working organizations for making textiles—the predecessors of modern manufacturing companies.

Mass-Produced Bricks 

To make up for a shortage of stones and timber for building houses and temples, the Sumerians created molds for making bricks out of clay, according to Kramer. While they weren’t the first to use clay as a building material, “the innovation is the ability to produce bricks in large amounts, and put them together on a large scale,” Jones explains. Their buildings might not have been as durable as stone ones, but they were able to build more of them and create larger cities.

The Sumerians were some of the earliest people to use copper to make useful items, ranging from spearheads to chisels and razors, according to the Copper Development Association . They also made art with copper, including dramatic panels depicting fantastical animals such as an eagle with a lion’s head. According to Kramer, Sumerian metallurgists used furnaces heated by reeds and controlled the temperature with bellows that could be worked with their hands or feet.

Mathematics

Primitive people counted using simple methods, such as putting notches on bones, but it was the Sumerians who developed a formal numbering system based on units of 60, according to Robert E. and Carolyn Krebs’ book, Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World . At first, they used reeds to keep track of the units, but eventually, with the development of cuneiform, they used vertical marks on the clay tablets. Their system helped lay the groundwork for the mathematical calculations of civilizations that followed. 

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Top 12 Inventions and Discoveries of Ancient Babylonia

Can you imagine a world without the wheel?

No wheels would mean no cars, trains, or airplanes, and no machines or industry.

In the absence of the wheel, the world would come to a standstill.

We can thank the Babylonians for pioneering discoveries like the wheel, the chariot, and the sailboat, as well as the development of the first-known map, which was engraved on clay tablets.

Let us take a look at the top 12 most significant Babylonian discoveries:

1. The First Map

Maps have immense importance even in the contemporary world, where we rely on Google Maps for many of our journeys.

An ancient Babylonian cartographer created the world’s first map on a clay tablet in 2300 BC. The map covers a small region of Babylonia during the Akkadian Empire. It shows trade routes and was used as a reference during military campaigns, hunting, and exploration.

The Babylonian Map of the World is circular and depicts mountains, rivers, canals, and swamps.

The seven small circles on the map represent the seven Babylonian cities. It can now be found in the British Museum.

2. Cuneiform

Originating in 3400 BC, cuneiform is the first-known form of written communication.

It cannot be regarded as a language as it comprised less than 1,000 characters, and these characters were used for accounting, administrative and business purposes.

Individuals with varying levels of education and knowledge could use it, and ordinary people used it to write letters, organize their business affairs, and document everyday occurrences such as astrological events.

More educated people used it for technical purposes like writing medical catalogs and mathematical derivations.

A pointed stylus was used to carve characters on a clay slab to maintain and manage records.

The oldest cuneiform slabs were illustrated and used visual symbols to communicate, the cuneiform alphabet only developing later on. The ancient Iraqi languages, Sumerian and Akkadian, were also carved on the clay tablets.

3. Agriculture

Agriculture is a core practice in most countries, and a country’s agrarian produce determines its growth.

Agriculture not only feeds the population but also provides employment opportunities.

An essential agricultural tool is the plow, which is used to loosen the soil ready for planting seeds.

The most primitive form of the plow was a stone hoe that was developed by Babylonians to turn the soil.

The earth dried up quickly in the plains of Babylonia, leading to the invention of the stone plow to set the ground.

Babylonians cultivated crops like emmer, wheat, and barley, and flax clothing was standard during this time.

The Babylonians regulated the flow of water to irrigate their crops and dug canals and irrigation ditches which, along with the plow, led the way for a new era of agricultural revolution.

4. Urbanization

As a result of agriculture and other employment factors, the Babylonians gradually moved from rural areas to more developed regions.

Urbanization began around 8,000 years ago in Babylonia as people moved to cities to seek educational and employment opportunities. This, in turn, helped them to earn more and improve their lifestyle.

With the dawn of the agricultural revolution, more and more people began to live in one region, resulting in urbanization.

People chose areas which were favorable for agriculture, and as trading developed, the idea of taxes was introduced.

5. Astrology and Horoscopy

Astrology is the science of studying the position of celestial bodies and reading how their movements can influence our lives, and this belief is widely practiced even in the modern world.

In ancient Babylon, it was thought that the celestial bodies had divine powers which directed people’s lives.

Constellations were used to determine the weather, climate, and the seasons, and to help people decide which crops should be sown when. The moon, the stars, and the sun were studied to predict future events like thunder or an eclipse.

Ancient Babylonian astronomists closely studied the sun and the moon cycles in order to predict this.

The concept of the horoscope was introduced by the Babylonians as they believed in the divinity of the celestial bodies. They mapped the position of astronomical bodies so that they could foretell their daily lives and those of their kings.

6. The Concept of Time

All of us have heard the adages “Time waits for no man” and “A stitch in time saves nine” but have you ever thought who created the concept of time? Of course, none other than the Babylonians, who devised a system of dividing time into 60 sections.

The current system of time has been in use for four millennia now.

The number 60 was chosen as the dividing factor as it was divisible by 6. The Babylonians estimated that the earth moved around the sun one degree in a day and took 360 days. This number was again divisible by 6. Astrologers used the sexagesimal system of numbering which took 60 as its base. They noted the frequency and duration of the full moon and saw that this was also divisible by 6.

7. The Sailboat

Since Babylonia was located in between two famous rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the importance of traveling by water was soon recognized.

Trade was at its peak and traveling via land routes was cumbersome and time-consuming. The Babylonians soon discovered an alternative when they realized the potential of water as a means of transportation.

The Babylonians invented the first sailboat with a basic structure and framework.

The first sailboat was square; it was made of cloth and relied on the wind to move.

With the invention of the sailboat, the Babylonians were able to expand their trade and commerce, soon trading with cities which were previously unreachable by land.

8. The First Wheel

Not only did Babylonia invent the sailboat for use on water, but also the wheel for use on land routes.

The oldest wheels were made of clay, rock, and mud, with wooden wheels coming much later on.

The Babylonians created the wheel in around 3,500 BC, the earliest wheel being used for pottery.

The first wheel did not have spokes and was in the form of a roller. Gradually, wheels were joined together with an axle by drilling holes in them for the shaft which went through the frame of a cart.

The wheel was first used by the elite and the wealthy for transport in 3200 BC, and soon its use for conveyance purposes, for pottery, in machines, and for irrigation was widespread in Babylonia.

The invention of the wheel ultimately led to the industrial revolution.

9. The Chariot

Originally, carts were used for the transportation of goods and for traveling. Soon they were being pulled by domestic animals, and this newly developed cart was known as a chariot.

The framework of the oldest chariot consisted of wood with a rim, and two-wheeled chariots were used in battle and to transport weapons and other war provisions.

Soon, chariots were being used as a means of transportation by royalty and the elite.

10. The Study of Mathematics

Mathematics has always been a part of human life, and the Babylonians developed many advanced mathematical theories which are still in use today. As the Babylonian civilization flourished and began to trade, an accurate counting system was necessary to measure the value of goods exchanged. The Babylonians created the concept of counting and the sexagesimal number system also originated in Babylonia.

They had an advanced decimal structure with a base of 60. It was the Babylonians who brought about the concept of 24 hours in a day with each hour consisting of 60 minutes, and each minute 60 seconds. The number 60 was chosen as it had multiple divisors. Evidence of mathematics has been found on old clay slabs from the period on which the Babylonians practiced fractions, algebra, and Pythagoras theorem.

Mathematics developed in reaction to the needs of the people. It played an essential part in daily life for the purposes of measuring land and working out a uniform tax system. They also made use of geometric shapes as a foundation for their architecture.

11. The Primitive Plow

The plow is an essential agricultural tool which is used to turn the soil.

The invention of the plow was a revolutionary agrarian development first discovered by the Babylonians. This early plow was called the ard. It was made of wood and was not very effective on grass.

The invention of the plow brought about great societal changes in the hunter-gatherer groups of Babylonia, enabling them to stay in one place and rely on agriculture instead of hunting.

12. Art and Architecture

The Babylonians built gigantic stone structures which resembled huge towers and were known as ziggurats. Etemenanki was a famous Babylonian ziggurat measuring around 299 feet (91 meters) which possibly inspired the story of the Tower of Babel. It is now in ruins.

The Babylonians were prolific artists, and even the most mundane household objects were beautifully decorated with images of human or animal forms.

Babylonian artifacts can be found in many museums today, often depicting scenes from everyday Babylonian life.

Babylonia has given the world many unprecedented and revolutionary innovations. The invention of the wheel led to the creation of chariots which were of the utmost importance during times of war.

The most crucial agricultural tool – the plow – was designed by the Babylonians which led to great advances in agriculture and eventually urbanization.

The first-known form of written communication was the cuneiform clay tablet which originated in Babylon, and along with the first map and the invention of the sailboat, it is easy to see how this ancient civilization is of such great importance even today.

Related posts:

• Top 11 Inventions and Discoveries of Mesopotamia
• Top 15 Most Important Events in Ancient Mesopotamia
• Top 13 Fascinating Facts about Ancient Babylonia
• Top 11 Most Important Events in Ancient Babylonia

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