Page 23 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
we discussed the project I had in mind. Did the Sumerians cover
their reed-ships with bitumen to make them waterproof and
buoyant? They certainly had access to natural asphalt that came to
the surface in open springs near Ur and in several other localities
higher up the river, and they used it to waterproof receptacles and
roofs. On the museum shelves there were reed-boat models five
thousand years old, thickly covered with asphalt.
Or, since asphalt was heavy, did they coat the bigger ships with
shark oil, as was still the custom among many of the fishermen in
the gulf, who used it on the planks of their wooden vessels? There
was even a very early tablet that spoke of a famous hero who mixed
six measures of pitch with three of asphalt and three of oil when
building a huge reed-ship. Was this mixture intended for impreg­
nating the water-absorbent berdi reeds?
Where was the ancestral Dilmun so often visited by Sumerian
merchant mariners? Most scholars now believe it was the island of
Bahrain, where recent archaeological work has uncovered exten­
sive towns, tombs and temples which in part even antedate
Sumerian time. But Bahrain was far out in the gulf, so perhaps
Dilmun was the smaller island of Failaka, which lay just off the
Sumerian coast?
I felt I had derived great benefit from the Museum meeting, but I
was also very uncertain and bewildered. What should I use to
impregnate my reed-ship? Anything at all? After weeks among the
Baghdad Museum artifacts and translations of the tablet texts I had
notebooks full of facts and theories. But one thing was clear: the
early Sumerians were shipbuilders and mariners. Their civilisation
was based on the import of copper, timber and other raw materials
from foreign lands, and their growth into a dominant power at the
mouth of the rivers was due to cities like Ur and Uruk being major
ports and centres of very extensive trade. They had no access to
copper and little chance of profitable trade in the immediate vicin­
ity, so it seemed obvious that their sailors must have gone very far.
Only a practical life-like test could give the answer. I decided to
carry out my project, and the Museum staff convinced their Minis­
try that to reconstruct a prehistoric vessel such as I had planned was
a sensible thing to do. I was then granted permission to harvest
reeds in the marshes, to import equipment free of customs, to
assemble the expedition’s crew in Iraq irrespective of nationality,
and we would all be the guests of the country until we sailed away.
I lost no time in returning to the marshes. An interpreter from the
museum was sent with me. From our rooms at the Garden of Eden
20