Page 347 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

294 Bronze and Iron [1300-1230 b.c.]

Babylonians and Assyrians were almost indistinguishable, and
you had to look at their loads to see whether they were carry­
ing dates or wheat. Then there were all the peoples of the hinter­
land, coming in to trade with the caravans, Moabites and Midi-
anites and Habiru and a score of others. But they were more local,
and the children knew the slight differences of dialect or dress
which marked them out. And sometimes there were convoys from
deep in Arabia to the south, and it was always a red-letter day
when they figured on the list. For they came with camels, huge
ungainly beasts which the children’s fathers said had only been
hearsay when they were boys. Camels were said to be able to
travel for days over waterless desert without needing food or
drink. They had been tamed by the tribes of the deep southeast
of Arabia and had only recently been introduced to the nearer
Arabians.
Not all the travelers of the coast road were traders, though.
Frequently—more and more frequently, it seemed—troops passed
through, companies and battalions of Egyptian or Sudanese in­
fantry, or squadrons of chariots, on their way to relieve the gar­
risons along the frontier by Byblos. And there were the couriers
in their swift light chariots, and the upper civil servants traveling •
slowly and in comfort in palanquins, with creaking ox wagons
carrying their household effects.
And then there were all the casuals, beggars of every na­
tionality, strolling players and minstrels and acrobats, traveling
bronzesmiths and jewelers and sealcutters, pilgrims and priests,
doctors and painters and scribes.
Only one place could rival the town gate as a point of vantage
for the children—and that was the harbor. Here, too, there was
always something new to be seen. There was the fishing fleet, and
the local vessels whose crews they knew. But there were also
larger vessels from farther afield, galleys from Egypt and from
the coast ports to the north, the big lateen-rigged merchantmen
from Cyprus and Tarsus, from Crete and Greece, and even from
farther away in the deeps of the Mediterranean. The children
ran to secure the mooring ropes cast ashore, and then sat on
the bollards along the quay, watching the booms swinging the
cargo slings up from the holds and ashore. They interrupted the