AWRC Maritime Day

Elynn Gorris will speak on: ‘On the Rivers of Babylon: Technical charts of Neo-Babylonian Boats in Cuneiform Texts’

The waterscape of Babylonia, dominated by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, constituted the artery of economic and social life. Rivers and canals formed an integral part of Babylonia’s transportation network, in which watercraft served as the primary means of transport. Neo-Assyrian reliefs, cylinder seals, and boat models attest to a variety of boat types; however, apart from a recently excavated canoe from Uruk, direct archaeological evidence for watercraft in Babylonia remains absent. For the Neo-Babylonian period, cuneiform documents provide the foundation for research on nautical transportation. The rise of private entrepreneurship, alongside state- and temple-driven circulation of people and goods, is reflected in extensive business archives documenting interregional exchange conducted primarily by waterway. The archive of the Egibi family of Babylon, for instance, contains sale and rental contracts for boats, tax and toll receipts related to (the capacity of) boats, records of expenditures for boats, ration lists for boat crews, and receipts for boat maintenance fees.

But to what extent can these documents contribute to a better understanding of the shapes, capacities and dimensions of the various boats navigating the rivers of Babylon? And to what extent can this information be translated into usable data for nautical archaeology? This paper examines the challenges and methodological pitfalls involved in using cuneiform data to reconstruct watercraft from a period in which visual evidence from the iconographic record is scarce.

Shadi Kalantar will speak on: Boats of Iran and their Ancient Representations: Small Boats, Canoes, Dugouts and Rafts

Although Iranians are not commonly known as a maritime nation, Iran embraces several different traditions of ship/boatbuilding. Iran’s diverse waterscapes and maritime cultures have shaped these distinct boat and shipbuilding traditions.

In the south, the arid and semi-arid coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman meet the desert, while the northern Caspian Sea coast features evergreen plains, marshlands, and river systems framed by the dense Hyrcanian Forests of the Alborz Mountains. These contrasting environments influenced vessel construction through available materials, water conditions, and coastal forms.

In addition to distinct environmental conditions, diversity in regional cultures influenced the coexistence of distinct boatbuilding traditions across the country: while the watercraft of Iranian side of the Persian Gulf must be studied alongside the Arabian side, the Balochi vessels in the northern Sea of Oman share more features with the Pakistani vessels. The boats of Caspian, however, must be contextualized in the wider Central Asian and Caucasian tradition.

Interestingly, this regional diversity is also notable in ancient representations of watercraft in Iranian art: while Elamite art (4th–1st millennia BCE) from southwest Iran represents Upper Persian Gulf vessels, petroglyphs and graffiti (12th–20th centuries CE) discovered in southern Iran are comparable to typical Persian Gulf vessels. Likewise, miniatures and reliefs from the more northern parts of the country are similar to Caspian traditions.

This study will primarily review small watercraft in Iran—including boats, canoes, logboats, and rafts used in coastal waters, marshes, and rivers for fishing, hunting, and transport along with their construction methods and sequences. Furthermore, it will draw an analogy with ancient representations of watercraft in Iran, and finally, the environmental and cultural factors that shaped them will be discussed.