How did they build these? Boats of the Persian Gulf during the Bronze Age

Trade was extremely important for the city states of the Persian Gulf during the Bronze Age. Certain resources (copper and precious metals) were highly valued by these societies though were not easily available across the region, leading to a thriving trade network. The Mesopotamian royal cemetery of Ur is just one of many sites where archaeological evidence of such trade can be found. The imports include products from regions connected to the Persian-Arabian Gulf, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Some of these trade destinations can be reached by land, but others require access by ship and boat. The Mediterranean is notoriously changeable and difficult to traverse, and so the ships required to sail the Mediterranean are a whole different story. Therefore, I shall focus on ships sailing the Gulf for this article. The Gulf is subject to strong local wind phenomena and vast parts of it can be sailed by staying close to the coast or island hopping. 

The evidence

Painted reconstructive scene from the harbour of Ur.

In reconstructing these vessels, the first place to look for the evidence would be ship wrecks. Sadly, none have been recovered, probably due to the sedimentation processes of the Gulf. During the 3rd millennium B.C. the city of Ur had a port; today the site is some kilometres inland and any potential ship wrecks along the coast are buried under the sediment.


A great deal of knowledge has been gained from reconstructing ships that have sunken in the Mediterranean (e.g. Uluburun, Kyrenia). However, despite the lack of wrecks recovered within the Gulf, there is plenty of indirect evidence which can be brought together to understand the qualities of such vessels.


The materials
There is quite a lot of textual evidence concerning ships, ship workers and construction parts, as well as laws, and book-keeping. Ships and their construction materials even turn up in religious texts, such as Nanna’s Journey to Nippur. Some documents from Umma state the amount of materials needed (predominantly reed, bitumen, ropes, and wood) to construct different sizes of boats and how long it would take to do so. For example, the amount of bitumen differs quite a bit through the different accounts but the previously cited text from Umma (TCL V: 5673) states a  vessel with 18 000 l (60 gur) capacity would require 4080 kg of bitumen for caulking. However the needed amount is not directly proportional to the size, as a 10 gur (3000 l) boat would still require 1585 kg. However it is important to note that based on the text it is not clear how much the different ship sizes could carry and 180 gur capacity does not equal 180 gur loading capacity (Potts 2003:131). Furthermore they indicate that the construction is related to the intended use of the boat, e.g. a large amount of wooden part is reserved for larger or prestigious ships. There is only few information about the time needed to construct the larger or sacred ships but reports for construction (or repair?) of 60 gur boats report time spans of 602-900 person-days.

 

Building methods

So we now know what materials in which quantities were required. That is a good start but we still don't know how these materials were brought together. However, if we compare the known quantities to pictorial evidence it is easier to reconstruct a ship as the form somewhat limits the potential material combinations...

Silver boat model from the Royal Cemetery of Ur.

Predominantly this evidence comes from seals, some rare drawings of boats on pottery and model boats recovered from various sites and cemeteries. All of them point towards 'crescent' shaped boats. As indicated by the texts, reed should be the major component, presumably with a wooden frame for the seafaring variants.

The next question, beyond configuration is technique. Based on ethnographic evidence from Iraq the specific shape is actually very much related to the way reed boats were constructed. The reeds would be stretched over a wooden frame and tied to the ground at each end to give the structure enough tension. It is there these tethered 'ends' which form a crescent shape as a by-product of the method of construction.

Modern examples of reed boats from Lake Titicaca.

In 2003, an excellent piece of experimental archaeological attempted to reconstruct a small version of one of these boats (Vosmer 2003). Vosmer's construction incorporated data from imprints on bitumen, which is primarily a coating to prevent water entering the vessel. Between 1985 and 1994, around 300 fragments of bitumen were recovered during excavations at Ras Al Jinz.  The bitumen dated to 2,300-2,100 BC and had the impressions of bound reeds, rope lashings and woven mats  on one side and residue of barnacles on the other side, indicating that the boat was submerged continuously for at least three months. This was the first direct evidence of how early Bronze Age vessels were constructed. It  indicated that reed mats were connected with ropes. They formed the outer shell which was probably sewn on the reed bundles forming the actual hull. Classically the frame of ancient boats and ships would be inserted later. The building team discovered that for their particular construction it was much easier to sew the reed bundles on a wooden frame instead of the other way around and that without the frame their boat would not be seaworthy. This might suggest that the ethnographic example might a good approximation to the way seafaring boats were build in the Bronze Age of that region.

How did they build these?

The fusion of material, textual, ethnographic and experimental evidence beautifully outlines how we can glean information about boat building techniques even if actual wrecks are lost. Altogether, a multi-disciplinary approach allows us to draw conclusions that go far beyond what any of those branches alone could recover.

Pictorial evidence and models suggest the appearance of the boats. Textual evidence tells us what materials were required for construction, the size of the boats and how long it took to build them. Archaeological finds offer insight into elements of the construction and ethnographic evidence can allow for comparisons with extant construction techniques. Ultimately, the proof is in the 'doing'; practical, experimental archaeology is a strong indicator that we are on the (or at least 'a') right track.

This case study highlights how sophisticated technology can be partially reconstructed through interdisciplinary research. If resources are shared and information pooled together, we can not only grasp how these ships could have been built but we can also take a step (or a sail) further with experimental archaeology.

- Chiara Girotto.

References:

Carter RA. 2012. Watercraft. In A companion to the archaeology of the ancient Near East, Potts DT (ed.). Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, West Sussex, Malden, MA; 378.

Oppenheim LA. 1954. Seafaring merchants of Ur. Journal of the American Oriental Society 74: 6–17.
Potts DT. 1997, Mesopotamian civilisation: The material foundations, Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York.

Sauvage C. 2011. Evidence from old texts: Aspects of Late Bronze Age international maritime travel and trade regulations in the Eastern Mediterranean? In Intercultural contacts in the ancient Mediterranean: Proceedings of the international conference at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, 25th to 29th October 2008, Duistermaat K, Regulski I, Jennes G, Weiss L (eds.). Peeters: Leuven, Walpole, MA; 427–437.

Vosmer T 2003, The naval architecture of Early Bronze Age  of the Arabian Sea, In Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: Proceedings of the first international conference on the archaeology of the U.A.E, Potts, DT, Al Naboodah H, Hellyer P (eds). Trident: London, 152-157.

Pictures:
Harbour of Ur: http://hdwall.us/high-definition-wallpaper/ur-harbour-2100-bce-high-resolution-desktop-hd-wallpaper-648962/
Silver boat from the Royal Cemetery of Ur: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/78/3a/16/783a16d611ed199ab7f4d1175c1757fe.jpg
Modern reed boats: http://www.visioninconsciousness.org/AC_01/Reed-boat%20-%20Lake%20Titicaca.jpg