The Indus Civilization c11.12

c11.12

The only evidence which has yet come to light which suggests that the products of the Indus Valley cities may have been carried westwards by sea is the picture of a masted boat scratched on a potsherd; but this may represent merely a river vessel. In spite of the lack of corroboration it is quite probable that the sea-route was extensively used, as it would have been possible to put in for water at several places on the shores of Baluchistan, although that coast is generally inhospitable. At the present day a considerable amount of trading is done by vessels sailing from various western ports in India to the Persian Gulf, and even direct to Aden, journeys which might well have been performed in ancient times, for the ships then in use could hardly have been much smaller or more primitive in appearance than some of those that make the voyage now. Egyptian shipping was known in the eastern Mediterranean as early as the Old Empire, and there is no reason to doubt that during that period, which is contemporaneous with the Indus civilization, foreign sailing ships, and even galleys, visited the north-western coasts of India. It is not possible to say definitely what nations took part in this sea traffic. Indians may have done so, and also Babylonians, as they are supposed to have been good sailors—at any rate in later times. The greater part of the coastal trade today is, however, in the hands of Arabians, and it may be that they were already the chief navigators of the Indian Ocean in those early times.