Page 322 - The Tigris Expedition

l ! The Tigris Expedition
the Mexican Gulf, are covered by vast stretches of a plant with a
flower and stem that are to an amateur’s eye indistinguishable in
every respect from papyrus. Botanists arc now inbreeding the
plant, suspecting that it might be a descendant of papyrus, Cyperus
papyrus. This important question was recently brought up at an
i • ethnobotany seminar by Professor Donald B. Lawrence of the
1
Department of Botany at the University of Minnesota, who wrote:
;
‘Rediscovery’ of Giant sedge (Cyperus giganteus) on the Gulf coast
i :
of Tabasco State, Mexico, at the famous Olmec culture site,
I >
home of ‘America’s first civilization’, and recognition of its
11 similarity to Papyrus, have suggested to this speaker its possible
derivation from that Old World plant, its possible introduction
i to the New World by man in ancient times (3000 or more years
ago), and its possible importance for the establishment and
development of the Olmec Culture.9

There seems to be no record or trace of papyrus growths in
i Mesopotamia. The first reed-built ma-gur must therefore have
been lashed together from berdi, as we had done. And as we were
still afloat in Pakistan, berdi had proved suitable for building
sea-going craft.
11 It was not very far from the desert landscape around Mohenjo-
Daro to the green belt where the Indus winds its long journey to
the mangrove swamps and the sea. From the little museum by the
ruins we wasted no time in getting to the river banks, which in
former times had run past the walls of the city.
‘Reeds! Hey, it’s berdi!’ Norman was first into the marshes to pull
up a plant. Indeed, it was berdi! The typical oval cross-section
composed of the crescent-shaped stems of adjoining branches with
spongy fill and large-celled, waxy walls was not to be mistaken.
This was the plant from which we had built Tigris. Whether it was
brought by man or by nature was merely a botanical problem.
There were vast stretches of it, and wherever we were in the Indus
i)
plains, as soon as there was a vacant area with moisture, we found
;; berdi growing wild. This then, and not papyrus, had been the reed
'
used by the Indus people for building bundle-ships of the same type
as those in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Merchants travelling between
Ur and the Indus in prehistoric times had ample opportunity to
:
I repair or even renew their vessels if their visits should last longer
than the reeds would float.
r On our way back to Tigris in Karachi harbour we took our time

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