Confirmation of the seasonal pattern of seafaring, at least in Oman, has come from the sites of the eastern Omani coast, such as Ra's al-Junayz (Ra's al-Jinz) and Ra's al-Hadd, which were occupied only during the winter months, September to March, when they were used as a base for fishing and shellworking. The seasonal inhabitants of these settlements brought with them copper tools, pottery, and plant foods from the interior. Such coastal settlements in Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have yielded stone net sinkers, fishhooks of shell or copper, and shell lures.
From the Makran coast, it is a short, easy sea crossing, around 30-40 hours under sail, to Oman on the western side of the Gulf, known as Magan to the Mesopotamians, and seaborne relations between these areas may have been established by the early third millennium BCE; fishing sites on the Oman coast are known by the fifth millennium. Magan and the Makran probably belonged during the earlier third millennium (Hili period in Magan) to a cultural interaction sphere in which ideas and small quantities of each region's local materials were exchanged and in which links were created and maintained by fishers exploiting the marine resources of the southern end of the Gulf during the winter months. Later trade between them is demonstrated by the presence of a few imported objects in Kulli sites and Kulli material in burial cairns on Umm-an-Nar in Magan.
By 2500 BCE (Umm-an-Nar period in Magan), the inhabitants of the Indus region and Gujarat had also become involved in this interaction sphere, as fishers but also as traders, establishing settlements in the Makran to give them control over the key Gulf of Oman crossings. The volume and variety of traded goods increased under their influence, and their artifacts inspired native industries in Magan. Although shells used for making bangles and other objects were available along the Makran and Gujarat coasts, the Harappans may have obtained some of their supply of spiny murex (Chicoreus ramosus) and Fasciolaria trapezium from the east and north coasts of Oman as well. Oman may also have furnished the Harappans with turtles for meat, shells, and leather. However, the main attraction of Magan to the Harappans was its extensive copper deposits.
The settlement of Ra's al-Junayz, on the east coast of Oman, was one of those engaged in trade with the Indus: It has yielded large storage vessels and other Harappan pots, a copper stamp seal with a Harappan design and inscription, a few Harappan beads, and a Harappan ivory comb, as well as a copper flat axe in the Harappan style.
A quantity of bitumen was found there, stored in particular rooms of some of the houses, dated to the second half of the third millennium. The bitumen was in several forms. Rectangular or plano-convex blocks of solid bitumen were shown by analysis probably to have derived from Mesopotamia where there were major deposits, particularly at Hit on the middle Euphrates. These blocks had been imported as an essential raw material for shipbuilding and maintenance. In addition, bitumen-coated sherds of Mesopotamian pottery, the only Mesopotamian ware found there, bear witness to the import of bitumen as a liquid. Bitumen was also present in the form of slabs or small threesided pieces, both bearing impressions of mats and reed bundles. Barnacles and impressions of barnacles were found on the opposite, smooth face of the bitumen slabs. Analysis of the composition of these slabs shows that they were a mixture of bitumen with tallow or fish oil (to increase plasticity), gypsum (to increase hardness and water resistance), and tempering material such as chopped reeds and palm leaf fragments. This mixture was used to caulk boats built of tightly bound reed bundles tied or sewn together and covered with reed mats. Simple reed boats had a life expectancy of some months, which was greatly increased by caulking to make them waterproof. Bitumen caulking was probably also used on boats built of wooden planks. Additionally, the caulking protected the boat's hull from barnacles, which could be removed more easily from the bitumen skin, applied 2-5 centimeters thick. The bitumen coating was periodically removed and could then be heated, cleaned up, and reapplied. Evidence of this practice comes not only from the bitumen pieces removed and stored at Ra's al-Junayz but from the presence, inside some of these pieces, of broken fragments of barnacle shell, evidently incorporated during an earlier reuse of this bitumen; an Ur III period text from Mesopotamia also refers to the practice. An Iranian pot that had been used to heat bitumen was found at the earlier Omani coastal site of RH-5 (Qurum) near Muscat. Umm-an-Nar off the west coast of Magan also yielded bitumen blocks, bitumen caulking recovered from boats, and jars coated with bitumen.
Much of the Oman peninsula is desert or mountains, the latter rich in copper and attractive stone, particularly diorite, olivine-gabbro, and chlorite. As well as coastal fishing, the inhabitants of the region practiced pastoralism and agriculture in inland oases and wadis. Most of their inland settlements were also sited to exploit the copper deposits, of which there were more than a hundred: The copper ore was smelted near the mines, then refined and made into ingots in the adjacent settlements. These inland sites were linked to coastal settlements that engaged in trade and industry, particularly copper smelting and working. Interestingly, despite the abundance of copper and the evident importance of its exploitation, copper objects were not common in Magan sites and those that were in circulation were generally small and technologically
Simple: fishhooks, chisels, flat axes, spear - and arrowheads, and small pieces of jewelry, such as rings and pins. This may imply that one of the main reasons for mining and smelting copper was for export, in exchange for valued Harappan, Mesopotamian, and Dilmunite goods and materials. A few copper or bronze vessels may have been imports from the Indus.
The best-known of these inland settlements is Maysar 1 in Wadi Samad, which, like most settlements of the Magan interior, comprised a village and a fortified tower, the latter probably used for storage, as a place of refuge when danger threatened, and as the residence of the local chief. The settlement's inhabitants cultivated the surrounding land using irrigation and engaged in a number of craft activities including the manufacture of (serie tardive) chlorite vessels, which were probably traded to other parts of the Gulf and Mesopotamia. Numerous furnaces, crucibles, crushing stones, and copper slag and many bun-shaped ingots attest to the importance of working copper from nearby mines. Some of the pottery vessels produced at Maysar show similarities to Harappan pottery in form and decoration. A triangular prismatic seal decorated with animals in Harappan style, a local imitation of a Harappan prototype, emphasizes the link with Harappan traders.
The latter may have penetrated the interior or may have confined their presence to coastal settlements, but their influence was substantial. Harappan pottery is known in considerable amounts from settlements on or near the coast, for example, making up a third of the pottery excavated at Asimah. The majority were large storage jars, sometimes bearing Harappan signs or graffiti. Indus beads were placed in a number of burials, for instance at Umm-an-Nar and Hili. Many local wares, both in coastal and in inland settlements, show Harappan inspiration. Other Harappan-influenced material found in Magan settlements include flat copper axes, and local metallurgy and seal cutting owed much to Harappan technology. One axe, from Tell Abraq, resembles an example from Mohenjo-daro that had been finished with a smooth outer shell made by dipping the cast object into molten copper. An unusual pear-shaped seal from Ra's al-Junayz was inscribed with a stick man closely resembling one of the signs in the Indus script. Harappan weights have been found at Tell Abraq, dated around 2300 BCE, and at early second-millennium Shimal. Two of these were made of the usual banded chert; the third, from Abraq, was of jasper, a material rarely used; but all are likely to have been manufactured in the Indus realms. The presence of Harappan weights in Magan implies that the Harappans needed to control quantities in their exchanges there.
In recent times the Oman peninsula has exported dates and dried fish, pearls, and mother-of-pearl to South Asia, and these may have been among its exports in Harappan times too. Copper, however, was probably the principal commodity sought by the Harappans there. The high nickel-content copper objects found at Lothal have been taken to imply that the copper from which they were made was derived from Magan, copper ores from which contain nickel and arsenic; however, this was also true of copper from the Aravallis in Rajasthan, also exploited by the Harappans. Hundreds of sherds of large Harappan black-coated storage jars are known from coastal sites like Ra's
Al-Junayz, Ra's al-Hadd, and Ra's Ghanada, as well as some inland sites, such as Asimah. These may suggest that, in return for their copper, the people of Magan received grain or other foodstuffs, as well as small personal items such as carnelian and lapis lazuli beads and ivory combs. Tin, used at Umm-an-Nar for alloying with copper, may also have come from or through the Harappans. Analyses of the composition of bronze items from four tombs suggest that they were made of imported bronze rather than of copper locally alloyed with imported tin, so the alloy may also have been brought in by the Harappans. Zebu cattle, bred in South Asia, were introduced into Oman during the third millennium, and they too may have been imported in the context of the copper trade.
Magan and the Harappans were also involved in a trade route that stretched as far as Africa. Ra's al-Junayz, 45 nautical miles south from Sotka Koh, is located on the most easterly point of Oman: This is the main landmark for ships crossing from Pakistan to the Arabian peninsula, and from here the route follows the southern Arabian coast to Yemen, from which it is a short distance across the Red Sea to Djibouti and Ethiopia. Incense may have traveled east along this route: it was the principal commodity of southwest Arabia in later times and was being imported in considerable quantities by the Egyptians by the late third millennium. It was also by this route that African crops, notably jowar (sorghum), ragi (finger millet), and bajra (bulrush millet), were introduced to the Indian subcontinent. The existence of links between Africa and the trade networks that passed through the Gulf is underlined by the discovery of copal resin from Zanzibar in a later third-millennium burial at the Mesopotamian city of Eshnunna.
The Eastern Gulf
By the twenty-fourth century BCE and probably earlier, the Harappans were also sailing right through the Gulf to Mesopotamia. The most direct and easiest sea route north followed the eastern shore of the Gulf. This is an inhospitable land. The mountains of southern Iran run parallel with and close to the coast, leaving only a narrow strip of coastal land, accessible from the interior of the Iranian plateau only through a few passes, and offering few resources to support human habitation. Settlements, such as Siraf, were established in some periods at points where a good anchorage existed, though such sheltered spots are few in number. One such place was Bushehr where a pass cut through the mountains by the Shapur River allowed a route to be established linking Anshan to the coast via Shiraz, but this was probably little used in the third millennium. Elam, the major state in the southwest of the Iranian plateau, had access to the sea at the head of the Gulf via the navigable River Karun but developed its main trade networks overland. Around 2300 BCE, Elam was conquered by Sargon of Akkad and remained largely in the orbit of the southern Mesopotamian states until 2004 BCE, when the Elamites sacked Ur. A number of Harappan seals, beads, and ivory inlays and a Harappan weight were found at Susa, the Elamite capital, and gaming boards of similar design are known from Susa and Lothal.
East of Anshan in the interior of southern Iran were various small polities, notably Shahdad and Tepe Yahya in Kerman, Jiroft in the Halil Rud Basin, Bampur and other towns in Iranian Baluchistan, and the Helmand culture in Seistan. These lay on routes running mainly east-west through the Iranian plateau, but a route to the seacoast around modern Minab and Bandar Abbas, opposite the northern tip of Oman, connected them with the sea. Trade between these towns and Magan took place during the earlier third millennium, but the people from the Iranian plateau do not seem to have sailed farther afield. During the Mature Harappan period, when the Harappans dominated the Makran coastal region, the volume of this Iran-Magan trade became negligible.
The Western Gulf
The western shore of the Gulf is mainly desert but settlements thrived in oases such as Hofuf and in coastal locations suitable for fishing. Islands off the western shore also offered opportunities for settlement. During the early third millennium, there was a flourishing culture on Tarut Island, and by the middle of the millennium Bahrain, which had earlier seen settlement followed by abandonment, was reoccupied and rapidly built up a flourishing economy based on agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, and particularly fishing. A town was established on the coast at Qala'at al-Bahrain, where there was a good natural harbor. The island's main agricultural product was dates, which came to be famed in the Near East for their quality. The surrounding waters yielded not only fish but also oysters from which "fish-eyes"(pearls) and mother-of-pearl could be obtained. The island is blessed with springs of freshwater that also bubble up offshore, and it has fine natural harbors, including one at Qala'at al-Bahrain. It was therefore a natural port of call for seafarers sailing through the Gulf who would put in to replenish their stocks of water. This led to the island's eventually developing a major role as a trading entrepot where goods from Mesopotamia, the Indus, and other places could be exchanged or obtained.
Trading relations also existed between Magan and Dilmun (the Mesopotamian name for the eastern Arabian littoral and Bahrain). For example, Umm-an-Nar pottery has been found in Bahrain.
Persian Gulf Seals. During the later third millennium, the people of Dilmun began to make round (Persian Gulf) seals, with simple motifs representing mainly animals or a human foot and with a high domed boss with a central groove. These continued in use into the early second millennium. A number of similar round seals bearing Harappan motifs, particularly of a short-horned bull, and occasionally Harappan script have also been found, particularly in Bahrain and at Ur, but also from Failaka, Babylon, Girsu, and Susa and from Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro in the Indus realms. Some of these seals had recognizably Harappan sign sequences, but in other cases the inscriptions included some signs or sign combinations unknown in the Indus region, suggesting that they rendered non-Harappan names or words. These may perhaps have been the
A two-room house in the settlement of Saar on Bahrain (ancient Dilmun). A bench with a basin, and a hearth and tannur can be seen along the two outer walls of the inner room. Saar dates mainly to the early second millennium BCE, when Dilmun was a prosperous entrepot for Gulf trade that provided a link between the Harappans and the Mesopotamians (who were no longer in direct contact). Dilmun’s increased wealth from trade is reflected in the appearance of such stone-built houses. (London-Bahrain Archaeological Expedition)
Property of Dilmunites who were closely engaged in Harappan trade. No other script was used on Persian Gulf seals and the majority were uninscribed. The relative chronology of classic Persian Gulf seals and those with Harappan motifs and inscriptions is unknown: however, it is possible that the Harappans introduced the Dilmunites to the idea of using stamp seals.
No written records are known from Dilmun, although familiarity with Mesopotamia's use of writing might have encouraged the development of literacy. Crawford (1998) notes that the round stamp seals of Dilmun would have been suitable for use with ink on a medium such as parchment. Since none of the non-Harappan Gulf seals, however, bore inscriptions, literacy is unlikely to have played an important part in local life.
Mesopotamian Traders in the Gulf
At the head of the Gulf lay Mesopotamia. Sumer, its southern region, saw the development in the early third millennium of city-states along the branches of the Euphrates. At that time the waters of the Gulf extended much farther north
Than today, and the city of Ur lay near the sea. The rivers of the region were navigable, providing a link from the sea to the cities of Akkad, the region north of Sumer. The independent city-states of Sumer and Akkad were united into a single state by Sargon of Akkad between 2334 and 2316 BCE. This empire broke up around 2200, but the region was reunified under the Ur III dynasty (2112-2004 BCE). Sumer had developed writing during the late fourth millennium and by 2500 BCE was creating copious records of economic transactions, legal documents, political statements, letters, and literature, so a considerable amount of information survives on Mesopotamian involvement in Gulf trade.
This seems to have ebbed and flowed. During the fifth millennium (Ubaid period), characteristic Ubaid pottery is known right through the Gulf, from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to Qatar and UAE. This distribution may reflect active trade with these regions by the Sumerians, but it is more likely that contacts between people from different parts of the Gulf, probably in the course of fishing expeditions, led to the exchange and spread of this desirable pottery; faunal remains in the settlements of the period in the eastern province of Arabia were composed largely of fish. In the fourth millennium (Uruk period), the Sumerians turned their attentions northward, trading with northern Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Fishing communities in the Gulf, however, probably continued to interact with their neighbors.
Magan. In the early third millennium, finds of pottery show that the Sumerians established trading relations with settlements on the UAE coast of Magan, such as Umm-an-Nar, whose inhabitants obtained copper and diorite through their connections with the interior. The Sumerians may also have penetrated the interior in this period. They continued to trade with Magan throughout the third millennium, receiving copper, timber, red ochre, turtles, diorite, and olivine-gabbro in return for wool, textiles and garments, oil, hides, large quantities of barley, and bitumen. By around 2500 BCE, Umm-an-Nar, situated on an island just off the western coast of Magan, was a major trading entrepot. Crawford (1998, 126) suggests that the underrepresentation of women and children among the burials at Umm-an-Nar may reflect the role of this settlement as a specialist center for traders and sailors without families. A building with seven narrow rooms in this settlement may have been a warehouse for storing goods for trade and commodities received in trade. Mesopotamian material was found only in coastal settlements, in contrast to Harappan material, known throughout Magan, suggesting that Mesopotamian traders were confined to the coast.
A few texts suggest that the Akkadian kings were not entirely satisfied with these trading arrangements: Perhaps the quantities of desired materials made available to them were inadequate. Old Babylonian (early second-millennium) copies of Akkadian inscriptions refer to an expedition by Manishtushu (2269-2255 BCE), in which he defeated a coalition of thirty-two "cities" and quarried black stone from their hills: The invaded region might have been Magan, though part of Iran is also possible. Inscriptions of his successor, Naram-Sin (2254-2218 BCE), refer to the latter's successful campaign in
Magan. Among the objects Naram-Sin dedicated to the temple was a serie re-cente chlorite vessel, probably booty from Magan. Naram-Sin also followed his victory there by quarrying diorite.
Sargon of Akkad claimed that boats from Magan sailed to his capital city, Agade, and twenty-first-century BCE documents discovered in the merchant quarter at the Sumerian city of Ur may refer to boats from this region, though the phrase "boats of Magan" may mean Sumerian vessels designed for the trip to Magan or of the same type as vessels used in Magan. Ur III period archives from Umma and Girsu also refer to delegates from Magan, among other foreigners, but it seems unlikely that sailors from Magan were major players in the sea trade.
Dilmun. By the late fourth millennium, the Mesopotamians were trading with a land they called Dilmun. This name probably referred to different areas of the Gulf at different times. In the early third millennium, it was probably applied to the island of Tarut and to the Eastern Province of the adjacent Arabian mainland. In the later third millennium it seems to have referred also to the Island of Bahrain, which by the early second millennium had become the main center. At this time the people of Dilmun also established a major outpost on the island of Failaka off the southern coast of Mesopotamia.
Tarut had trading relations with Mesopotamia, Magan, various parts of Iran, and Baluchistan in the earlier third millennium. At this time it was a producer of chlorite vessels in what is known as the Intercultural Style (serie ancienne). Other major production centers were Tepe Yahya, situated very close to a large deposit of chlorite, and probably Jiroft to its north. These vessels were widely traded in the Gulf, Mesopotamia, and the Iranian plateau. Dilmun was referred to in the twenty-fifth and twenty-fourth centuries BCE as a intermediary supplier of timber and copper. Although there are references to Dilmun in the subsequent periods, during the later third millennium its role as an entrepot seems to have declined, and the Mesopotamians dealt directly with Magan through its western coastal centers, such as Umm-an-Nar, and with the Harappans who came themselves to Sumer. It was only after the fall of Ur III that Dilmun again operated as a major entrepot.
As agricultural land in the region was limited, imported grain became important to the local economy. Large shipments of grain from Mesopotamia are recorded: one, for example, contained 187,500 imperial gallons (714,000 liters) of grain. Mesopotamia also supplied Dilmun with other foodstuffs, wool, and silver. Pearls and mother-of-pearl were exported from Dilmun to Mesopotamia along with the fine dates that were cultivated on Bahrain.
The Indus and Mesopotamia
Although Sumerian and Akkadian traders were active in the Gulf, there is no evidence that they ever reached farther south than the western coast of Magan. Harappan material, however, began to appear in Mesopotamia in the early days of the Indus civilization: Carnelian beads, for example, are known from some of the graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, dated between 2600 and 2450
BCE. Initially such exotica may have reached the Sumerians indirectly either by trade through the Iranian plateau or via their trade with the people of Magan, with whom the Harappans were now in regular contact. By the late twenty-fourth century, however, the Harappans were sailing through the Gulf right up to ports in southern Mesopotamia, for it was at this time that Sargon of Akkad boasted that ships from Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha docked at the quays of his capital, Agade, which lay far up the Euphrates river.
Meluhha, it is now generally agreed, was the name by which the Indus civilization was known to the Mesopotamians: Meluhha was the most distant of the trio of foreign lands, and the imports from Meluhha mentioned in Sumerian and Akkadian texts, such as timbers, carnelian, and ivory, match the resources of the Harappan realms. The Meluhhans were said to have had large boats, and indeed substantial, seaworthy craft would have been a prerequisite for trade over the distances involved. By the time of Sargon, therefore, if not before, the Indus people were plying the Gulf sea lanes and anchoring in Mesopotamian ports.
After the collapse of the Akkadian dynasty in 2193 BCE, there was a period of political disintegration, during which various Mesopotamian city-states reasserted their independence. One of the foremost was Lagash, under its great ruler Gudea (2141-2122 BCE), who made use of the established trade networks to acquire exotic materials, including wood and "translucent carnelian from Meluhha," for a great temple he was building in his capital city, Girsu (Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, "The Building of Ningirsu's Temple," line 443). Southern Mesopotamia was again united in 2112 BCE by Ur-Nammu, who founded the Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III), the second Mesopotamian empire. Although Ur III period texts do not refer to the arrival of ships from Meluhha, numerous pieces of evidence attest to the actual presence in Sumer of merchants from the Indus region at this time.
Harappans in Sumer and Akkad (Babylonia)
Harappan trade with Babylonia seems to have been established on a significant scale by Akkadian times. One Mesopotamian cylinder seal of this period identified its owner as a "Su-i-li-su, Meluhha interpreter." Another text, probably of this period, recorded that a Meluhhan called Lu-Sunzida paid a certain Urur, son of Amar-Luku, 10 shekels of silver as compensation for a broken tooth. It is probable that Harappan merchants were resident in Mesopotamia by this time, but one should not underestimate the difficulty of archaeologically identifying their presence: In a comparable situation in nineteenth-century BCE Kanesh in Anatolia, the presence of a substantial Assyrian merchant quarter in the town was known only from the cuneiform tablets found in the merchants' houses detailing their trading and other activities, while in other respects (architecture and artifacts) their remains were indistinguishable from those of their Anatolian neighbors. Small objects that have been occasionally found, such as dice, frequently in a worn or broken condition, might have been the personal possessions of Indus merchants, as would be the Harappan seals that have been found. The Akkadian levels in the city of
Eshnunna yielded Harappan material, including a cylinder seal with a design of Harappan animals (an elephant, a rhino, and a gharial), carnelian beads, and Harappan pottery. Possehl (1997) draws attention to a toilet of this period at Eshnunna, associated with Harappan-style drainage, suggestive of Harappan influence and probably of a Harappan presence in the city.
During the Ur III period, there are a number of references to Meluhhan people or sons of Meluhha (du-mu me-luh-ha) in various economic contexts. Evidence of the presence of Harappan merchants in Sumer at this time comes from a number of major cities, including Lagash and Girsu in the territory of Lagash, Ur, Kish, Eshnunna, and Umma. A village of Meluhhans (e-duru me-luh-ha), presumably a trading colony managing the Sumerian end of the Indus trade network, existed on Lagash land in the twenty-first century BCE. Apart from its foreign inhabitants, the village seems to have been unremarkable, cultivating barley and paying its taxes in the usual way, and three individuals from the village were referred to by Sumerian names.
Many finds reflect the participation of Indus merchants in the local organization of trade. A clay sealing, probably found in the city of Umma, bore the impression of a seal with a bull and manger motif and a six-sign Harappan inscription. The sealing had been placed over the knot in a cord that fastened a piece of cloth to the neck of a jar. The city had direct trading connections with Meluhha, Dilmun, and Magan. A text from Umma recorded that a ship's agent from Meluhha had received rations of oil, while another of the period recorded an advance of silver (used, in effect, as currency) to a Meluhhan man. Around forty-five seals with Harappan connections were found in Sumerian cities, beginning in the Akkadian period, though the majority were of Ur III date. These included standard square Harappan seals and cylinder seals with Indus animal designs and inscriptions in the Harappan script, known from Ur, Susa, and Eshnunna. An unusual seal from Ur had a design of a bull without a manger and an inscription in cuneiform. There were also Indus-style square seals with the script unusually arranged, presumably to render non-Indus names or titles. Two seals were found in Kish, both with the bull and manger design and Harappan inscriptions. These seals and sealings suggest the involvement of Harappan merchants in the packaging of goods for dispatch to the Indus. A yellow carnelian Harappan cubical weight of 13.5 grams, identical to one from Chanhu-daro, was found in Ur III period Ur: similarly this suggests the involvement of the Harappan traders in transactions requiring the determination of value by weight.
Mesopotamia’s Imports from the Indus
Some indication of the range of materials that the Sumerians and Akkadians imported from Meluhha can be gleaned from Mesopotamian texts. These included various types of timber, stone, and metal, as well as ivory and animals. Some of these were clearly of Indus origin; others were not products of the Indus region itself but were materials that the Harappans imported and traded on to Mesopotamia. In addition, texts refer to some goods that the Mesopotamians imported from Dilmun and that were clearly not produced there; many of these were originally from the Indus region.
Carnelian. Carnelian (red stone) was frequently mentioned in Mesopotamian texts, often as an import from Dilmun (which had no native carnelian), though in Gudea's inscriptions it was said to come from Meluhha. Although it is also found in parts of Iran, carnelian must have come mainly from the Harappans, who mined and worked it in considerable quantities. Their most distinctive carnelian products included exceptionally long beads and beads decorated with various so-called etched (actually bleached) designs, including eye patterns; identical carnelian beads have been found at Mesopotamian sites such as Kish, Ur, Nippur, Eshnunna, and even Assur in the north. Sometimes the Sumerians engraved these beads with cuneiform inscriptions, such as two that the Akkadian King Shulgi dedicated to the goddess Ningal as booty from his war against Susa. The Sumerians also imported unworked pieces of carnelian that were used by their own artisans. For example, there was a carnelian-working industry at Girsu; its products were small and rough compared with those imported from the Indus.
Lapis Lazuli. One of the most prized materials imported into Mesopotamia was lapis lazuli, referred to as a suitable material for adorning temples and known in Mesopotamia by the Uruk period. It was used for decorating precious objects, including the lyres and gaming boards placed as grave offerings in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, as well as being widely employed for small pieces of jewelry, such as beads and the heads of pins.
In the story of "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," King Enmerkar of Uruk negotiates with the lord of Aratta (possibly Jiroft in the Halil-Rud Basin in Iran) to obtain lapis, and it is clear from this and other texts that lapis was being traded overland in the first two centuries of the third millennium. In later texts, however, lapis is said to come from Meluhha. The distribution of this material after 2500 BCE shows a complete change in the organization of its trade. It seems that the Harappans were using their trading station at Shortugai to monopolize the supply of lapis to the west. Lapis lazuli was occasionally used for beads by the Indus people themselves, but they preferred harder local stones like agate, and most of the lapis that the Harappans imported was traded to Mesopotamia. This may have had a serious impact on the east Iranian city of Shahr-i Sokhta, which had built a large-scale industry on the processing and supply of lapis. In the last two centuries of the third millennium, Shahr-i Sokhta ceased to make beads and process lapis lazuli, and around 2200 BCE it went into a decline.
Plants and Plant Products. Linguistic evidence suggests that sesame oil was among the Indus exports to Mesopotamia. It was known in Sumerian as ilu/ili and in Akkadian as ellu/ulu, terms that are strikingly similar to an early Dravidian name for sesame, el or ellu. The plant from which the oil came, however, was known by an unrelated name and was under cultivation in Mesopotamia by around 2250 BCE; it may have been introduced from the Indus or from Africa, to which it was also indigenous, via the Levant.
Timbers of various sorts were valued imports to southern Mesopotamia, which lacked substantial trees for construction. "Highland mesu wood," from
Which the Sumerians made boats, chariots, and furniture, was probably sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo), which grew in the Punjab and in other parts of the Indus Basin, as well as in Baluchistan. Another wood used for construction and furniture was called kusabku—sea wood. This might have been mangrove but this identification would be problematic, since mangrove, which grows in the saline waters of the Indus delta and other Indian river deltas and on the Pakistani Makran coast, is not suitable for fine use, such as the throne inlaid with lapis lazuli mentioned in one Sumerian text. However, teak, native to the hills of Gujurat, is much used for boatbuilding because it is water-resistant, and it may therefore be a good alternative identification of sea wood. Teak is a very fine timber that would have been highly suitable for making decorative furniture.
Many other kinds of Meluhhan timber are mentioned. One called sulum meluhhi (black wood of Meluhha) might have been ebony, native to the Western Ghats. No trace of ebony has yet been found at Indus sites themselves, but since wood does not generally survive, the few extant pieces cannot be representative of the full range of timbers used by the Harappans. Alternatively, sulum meluhhi may have been rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia), which is known from Harappa. The Mesopotamians also claimed to import Meluhha date palm as timber. This is puzzling because the date palm flourished in southern Mesopotamia itself; the name may perhaps refer to a different type of tree that bore a resemblance to the date palm.
A reference to reeds in the Sumerian text "Enki and the World Order" suggests that something resembling reeds was a noteworthy product of the Indus region. There are several possibilities. Reeds are said to have been imported by the Mesopotamians from Magan and used for containers, arrowshafts, and furniture; so the Magan reed was probably bamboo. The Harappans imported bamboo from the Makran for use in buildings, for oars and masts, and as a packing material at Lothal; so possibly the highland reeds were bamboo. Alternatively, the reference may be to sugarcane, which grew wild in the Punjab. Other timbers used by the Harappans, including deodar, tamarisk, pine, elm, and acacia, seem not to have been imported by the Sumerians.
Metals. Both Magan and Meluhha are referred to in the Mesopotamian texts as sources of copper. The Sumerians obtained some copper directly from Oman throughout the third millennium, but during the latter part Meluhha and Dilmun also acted as intermediaries and Sumer had no direct contact with Oman after about 2000 BCE. It is curious that the Harappans, who were conducting expeditions to Magan to obtain copper, presumably to meet a shortfall in the supply of more local (Aravalli and perhaps Baluchi) copper for their own needs, should also have been trading it on to the Sumerians who were themselves obtaining Magan copper. It is possible that the Harappans, who probably traded directly with the copper miners inland, may have obtained copper at a rate sufficiently favorable to allow them to make a profit by selling it to the Sumerians, who had only indirect access to Magan copper via coastal settlements.
Tin was a rare commodity in the ancient world, but one to which Sumer and Meluhha both had access. Its sources are uncertain. One reference, in an inscription of Gudea, suggests that some of Sumer's tin came from Meluhha. The Harappans may have obtained tin from the Aravallis, but more probably it came from Afghanistan, where it occurred close to the Indus outpost of Shortugai, along with gold.
Meluhha is given in the Mesopotamian texts as a source of gold dust, a commodity available from various parts of the Indus and neighboring regions. Gold dust was probably panned by the Harappans on the upper reaches of the Indus River, as it is today. The export of gold dust to Mesopotamia suggests that substantial quantities were available to the Indus people. This is borne out by the considerable number of pieces of gold jewelry found in Indus towns and cities.
Animals and Animal Products. Ivory from Indian elephants was used in great quantities by the Indus people. Curiously, although the Mesopotamians used ivory, their surviving texts record Meluhha as the source only of ivory birds.
A number of Indian animals were brought to Mesopotamia as gifts or exotic goods. These may have included water buffaloes, vividly depicted on a few Akkadian cylinder seals and mentioned in a few texts. In one, they were among the exotic animals invoked to give a flavor of the cosmopolitan nature of the Akkadian capital, Agade: the goddess Inanna ensured
That monkeys, mighty elephants, water buffalo, exotic animals, as well as thoroughbred dogs, lions, mountain ibexes, and alum sheep with long wool would jostle each other in the public squares (Electronic Corpus of Sumerian Literature, "The Cursing of Agade," lines 21-24).
Transporting animals of the size and ferocity of water buffaloes to Mesopotamia would reinforce the suggestion that the Harappans must have possessed large ships. An Ur III text describes a red dog originally from Meluhha, probably a dhole (Cuon alpinus), which was given to King Ibbi-Sin as tribute from Marhasi (inland southwestern Iran).
Figurines of animals were also among the goods brought to Mesopotamia by the Harappans. These included ivory birds and carnelian monkeys, according to the texts, and model monkeys in several materials, including gold, have been found.
Mesopotamian Trade with the Indus
Sumerians in the Indus Realms? There is a considerable body of evidence, archaeological and textual, to show that Harappan traders were present in Sumer and Akkad. Did the Sumerians also go to the Indus to trade? Some scholars argue that there is evidence that they did. For example, it has been suggested that wooden coffins and reed shrouds used in some of the burials at Harappa reflect Sumerian funerary practices and may therefore be the burials of Sumerian traders. However, these might equally reflect innovations brought back to the Indus by Harappans who had lived in or visited Mesopotamia.
A few small Mesopotamian barrel-shaped weights of black stone are known from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and one each from Lothal and Dholavira, the latter of limestone and therefore perhaps made locally rather than being from Mesopotamia. These objects were found in a variety of contexts, though often associated with Harappan cubical weights. Ratnagar (2004, 312) argues that these may reflect the presence of Mesopotamian traders in Indus cities. However, they may alternatively have been used by Harappan merchants when packing goods for export. Such weights were in use in Mesopotamia only from around the end of the Ur III period (reign of Shu-Sin, 2037-2029 BCE) onward; they may therefore have been acquired in Dilmun, where both the Mesopotamian and the Harappan weight systems were in use and where Mesopotamian barrel-shaped weights have been found, rather than in Mesopotamia itself.
Written records were an integral part of the Mesopotamian economic system and it is inconceivable that Sumerian merchants, if they were present, would not have left records in the form of cuneiform tablets in the Harappan cities where they were based. Cylinder seals and sealings would also be likely to have been found; however, although a few cylinder seals are known from Harappan sites, all differ from standard Mesopotamian seals in style and execution, and they are more likely to be the property of Harappan merchants who had used them in Mesopotamia than to have belonged to Mesopotamian merchants operating in the Indus.
Neither these nor other suggested pieces of evidence (such as shared artistic motifs) provide a convincing indication that the Sumerians made their way to the Indus region, and it is probable that they did not.
Mesopotamian Exports. It is still not clear what the Indus civilization imported from Mesopotamia in exchange for all its exports. Mesopotamian texts give some indication of the range of goods that they exported to other lands: the surplus of local agricultural produce, such as barley, wheat, dates, leather and wool, dried fish, and goods manufactured from local materials such as fine woolen textiles, perfumed ointments and oils. There were also goods and materials imported from other regions, such as silver from Anatolia or Elam; such materials were imported in larger quantities than the Mesopotamians required and were traded on. Finally, goods manufactured in Mesopotamia from imported materials were also traded. Many of these exports, such as textiles and foodstuffs, have left no archaeological trace since they have long since been consumed or have perished. So, although it is known that Mesopotamia was exporting such goods, there is no way of determining whether the Indus people were customers for them.
Archaeological evidence, textual references, and knowledge of local resources and requirements make it possible to reconstruct the patterns of trade between Mesopotamia and the peoples of the Gulf. In exchange for their own raw materials and traded-on goods, the cultures of the Gulf received important everyday commodities, such as oil, grain, and textiles, that they could not produce themselves or that were locally in short supply, along with luxury
Goods from Mesopotamia and elsewhere, such as fine pottery. These cultures had many needs or desires that could not be met locally, and so it is not difficult to understand why they traded with Mesopotamia.
But the benefits derived by the Indus civilizaton from trade with the west are far harder to divine. No Sumerian texts refer to goods destined for Meluhha. From the commodities that Mesopotamia had to offer, there seems little that the Indus people could not obtain closer to home or produce themselves in abundance. Very few Mesopotamian objects have been found in Indus sites: a few pieces of jewelry and other small objects, curios rather than the stuff of an economically significant trade network. The Indus people had no need of Mesopotamian grain or other foodstuffs, and their industries were as technologically advanced as those of Sumer and Akkad. It is possible, however, that some commodities from Mesopotamia may have been thought superior to the local Indus versions and therefore valued and considered worth importing, just as in the nineteenth century BCE the Anatolians valued high-quality Babylonian textiles even though they produced textiles themselves. In the context of Indus-Mesopotamian trade, for example, Sumerian or Dilmun dates may have been preferred to dates from Baluchistan.
Similarly, there were few foreign raw materials to which the Harappans did not have more local access: Shells abounded on their own seacoast, gemstones for jewelry were available from Gujarat or the Deccan, copper came from the Aravallis, and so on. In some cases local supply may not have been able to keep pace with demand, necessitating the import of copper, for example, from Oman as well as from the Aravallis. A few raw materials, however, probably could not be obtained from the Indus region or its near neighbors.
Silver. One possibility was silver, although supplies of silver closer to the Indus than Mesopotamia may have been exploited. A potential source was in Rajasthan around Ajmer, although the paucity of silver at Kalibangan (relatively close to the source) compared with Mohenjo-daro and Harappa suggest that the Harappans did not exploit this small deposit. Another source was the Panjshir Valley in northern Afghanistan, where silver was later mined. This lay along one of the routes that may have connected Shortugai with the Indus region. Silver was much used by the Indus elite, being made into jewelry such as beads and bangles. Silver objects have been found in major cities, in Mohenjo-daro especially, where they include silver vessels, and in Harappa, but only rarely in other, less important sites.
The Harappans also used lead, mainly to alloy with copper or as a smelting flux, but also occasionally to make objects such as vessels or ornaments. Lead ore often contains a small amount of silver, and this was the case in the ores of Rajasthan and Afghanistan. Traces of lead in silver from Mohenjo-daro suggest that Harappan silver was extracted from a combined lead and silver ore.
The Mesopotamians imported silver from both Elam and Anatolia, and they often used it as a medium of exchange, in the form of rings or coils from which the required amount could be cut. The texts make it clear that a considerable amount of silver was obtained by the Mesopotamians for trade with the Gulf;
It is therefore quite possible that Mesopotamia was the immediate source of the silver used by the Harappans. Silver was not in use before the Early Indus period in the subcontinent and ceased to be used after the Indus decline. A Harappan weight discovered at Ur implies that the Harappans were weighing some commodity that they obtained for export. The size of weight, 13.5 grams, suggests that the material being weighed was a high-value commodity traded in small consignments; silver fits this description.
Textiles. The Harappans had cotton and leather to make clothing and other textiles, and they kept small numbers of sheep and goats, the latter producing hair that could be used as a fiber. However, as I argued in the previous chapter, the Harappan sheep may not have produced wool (except for the short, seasonally shed undercoat that characterized wild sheep). Even if Indus sheep did produce wool, the yearly yield would have been small, given the small numbers of sheep that were kept. Sumer, in contrast, was rearing tens of thousands of sheep annually and producing wool and woolen textiles on an enormous scale: for example, one Ur III "textile factory" at Lagash employed six thousand people. Many of these textiles were produced for the export market, and Sumerian textiles had an international reputation for fine quality. It is therefore likely that Mesopotamian woolen textiles were among the goods sought by the Harappans.
World History
