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The image of oil tankers passing through the Straits of Hormuz, into the
Indian Ocean, and so to the rest of the world seems quite modern, dating
back only some fifty years or so. It is surprising to realize, then,
that it is actually just the latest aspect of a tradition of maritime
trade in the region which stretches back some 7,000 years. "In fact, the
South and Southwest Asian regions, and the Gulf area in particular, have
perhaps the richest and longest running seafaring tradition of any world
region."1

The Arabian Gulf, or al-Khaleej al-Arabi in Arabic, lies between the
Arabian Peninsula <history_arabia.asp> and Southwest Asia. It is
connected by the Straits of Hormuz to the Arabian Sea, the northwest
part of the Indian Ocean. The Gulf is some 615 miles long and has a
maximum width of 210 miles, with an area of about 93,000 square miles.
It is a shallow body of water, with a maximum depth of 360 feet, and due
to hydrological conditions does not develop high waves. Despite high
temperatures and humidity, the Gulf rarely sees storms and gale-force
winds, and therefore is an easily navigable body of water, unlike its
neighbour, the Red Sea. For several millennia these two bodies of water
served as primary routes of interaction between the great civilizations
of the East and the Mediterranean.

Mesopotamia is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers at the
northwest end of the Arabian Gulf. It is likely that in prehistoric
times the waters of the Gulf were higher. As they receded, the land was
left covered in rich, highly fertile sediment which attracted settlers
to the region. This region formed one end of the Fertile Crescent, an
area of fertile land stretching from the northern end of the Arabian
Gulf in a semi-circle northwest to the Nile River delta. As one writer
describes it, the "Fertile Crescent was to be for most of historic times
a great crucible of cultures, a zone not only of settlement but of
transit, through which poured an ebb and flow of people and ideas. In
the end this produced a fertile interchange of institutions, language
and belief from which stems much of human thought and custom even today."2

The first known urban civilizations arose in Mesopotamia. There is
archaeological evidence of urban centres around 5,000 BCE at sites such
as 'Ubaid, Uruk and Kish. In the United Arab Emirates
<history_emirates.asp> and Oman <history_arabia.asp#oman>,
archaeological surveys have also revealed settlements as old as 7,000
years. In these settlements, distinctive black pottery from 'Ubaid has
been discovered; indicating that trade throughout the Gulf had been
established by that time.

It is difficult to know why the Mesopotamians and their neighbours took
to the sea to trade. Some suggest that despite its agricultural
fertility, Mesopotamia lacked other resources such as metal, wood and
stone. If they had been unable to obtain these by trade overland, it may
have driven them to sail their boats down the rivers and out into the
Gulf in search of other sources. Written records from Sumer dated around
3,000 BCE mention a place called Magan, from where copper was obtained;
possibly this was a culture in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula. Later
trade records from the Akkadian period, around 2000 BCE, mention Dilmun
(perhaps modern Bahrain) as an entrepôt between Mesopotamia, Magan and
Meluhha (the Akkadian name for the Indus valley region). Dilmun itself
may be a much older civilization, as archaeological evidence from
Bahrain <history_arabia.asp#bahrain> suggests that it dates back to the
beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE. Thus, there is plenty of
archaeological evidence of trade between Mesopotamia, the Gulf and the
Indus valley, including findings of special seals from each region,
which would have been attached to bundles of trade goods, in the other
regions.

*_ A TRADITIONAL BOAT_*

One question that has been raised, and answered in a unique way, is
whether the ancient Mesopotamians would have had the maritime technology
to reach the Indus valley and other places in the Indian Ocean. In 1977,
the Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl set out to prove that this
was indeed possible. Using the oldest Sumerian depictions of their
sailing craft, he built a replica from local reeds found in the
Tigris-Euphrates delta. In this ship, named Tigris, he and eleven others
sailed out into the Gulf, to Bahrain. From there they sailed to Oman,
then Pakistan, then finally back to Aden. They had hoped to be able to
sail up the Red Sea to the Suez Canal, but a regional conflict between
Ethiopia and Somalia ended their voyage at Djibouti. They had travelled
for five months and 4,200 miles, and had shown that a ship constructed
along the lines of ancient Sumerian design could certainly travel the
distances involved to trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus valley.

However, it is believed by some that it was the sailors of Magan who
came to dominate the trade between Mesopotamia and India some time in
the 3rd millennium BCE, acting as middlemen in the shipment of trade
goods. Situated at the mouth of the Gulf, they would have been able to
intercept other ships, particularly those attempting to sail to the Red
Sea and up to Egypt. It was this control, perhaps, which gave Magan its
power and wealth, wealth that was shared by Dilmun and other cities on
the coastline of the Gulf, such as those found at Umm an-Nar and Dalma
off the coast of Abu Dhabi, and at Failaka in Kuwait
<history_arabia.asp#kuwait>. It is not clear when the power of Magan
finally declined, but it must have been well before the time of the
Greeks, as it is not mentioned in their writings.

Another factor that facilitated trade in the Gulf was the construction
of roads by the Mesopotamian civilizations northwards to connect the
Gulf to the Mediterranean. The first long-distance road came into
existence in about 3,500 BCE, running 1,500 miles between the Gulf and
the Mediterranean. From 1,200 BCE on, the Assyrians used this road to
connect the trading centre of Susa, in present-day Iran, with the
Mediterranean ports of Smyrna and Ephesus, in present-day Turkey. They
may have traded with the Minoans, a civilization based on the island of
Crete. Certainly they carried on extensive trade with the Egyptians and
the Phoenicians, who were themselves an advanced seafaring culture with
colonies throughout the Mediterranean. There were also roads between
Mesopotamia and Egypt, running across the northern part of the Arabian
Peninsula, with connections to the trade centres of the interior.

What was being traded through the Gulf in those ancient times? Ancient
clay tablets record such goods as herbs and spices, frankincense and
myrrh, textiles, gems and jewellery, and ceramics. There is evidence of
teak and cedar coming from India. Minerals and metals such as copper
from Magan are also noted. The Gulf was also renowned as a source of
high quality

*_ PEARLS_*

pearls, one of the most highly prized jewels of that time. Diving for
pearls <history_pearl.asp> in the calm waters and shallow depths of the
Gulf was an ancient pursuit. In the U.A.E., archaeological sites dating
back to the 5th millennium BCE have been found to contain pearls.

By the middle of the 6th century BCE the Achaemenians had established an
empire which, at its height, stretched throughout the Near East from the
Indus valley to Libya, and north to Macedonia. Thus it controlled all
the trade routes to the Mediterranean, both by land and by sea. The
Achaemenian kings rebuilt the road from Susa to Sardis, near Ephesus and
Smyrna. Our first extended accounts of Arabia and the Gulf come from
this time.

Herodotus was a Greek writer who travelled throughout much of the
Achaemenid Empire, and described Arabia in his Histories. "Arabia is the
last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is the only country
which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and
laudanum…Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said. The whole
country is scented with them, and exhales an odor marvelously sweet."3
It is not clear whether Herodotus actually visited the Arabian Peninsula
himself. Some of the stories he recounts suggest that he is only
reporting what others had to say.

1- C. Kostman, /"In Search of Ancient Seafarers in the Arabian Gulf"/,
Archaeological Research Facility Newsletter, Spring 1995
Vol. 2 No. 2, University of California Berkeley
2- J.M. Roberts, /The Pelican History of the World/, Penguin Books Ltd.,
1981, pg. 62.
3- Herodotus, /The Histories, Book III/

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