The Indus Civilization c9.57

c9.57

Boat-building must also be included among the crafts of a people whose chief interest was trade and who had, in Mohenjo-daro, a prosperous city close to a large and navigable river. A boat carved on one seal-amulet has no mast, a sharp, upturned prow and stern, a cabin in the middle, and a steersman seated in the stern. Certain markings on the hull of the vessel suggest that it was made of reeds bound together, a method of building which was used for quite large boats in ancient Egypt. Another representation of a boat is roughly scratched on a pottery sherd and resembles the first in that it is high at both ends and holds a steersman, but instead of the deck cabin in the centre, it has a mast with apparently two yards. The first type of vessel may have been exclusively used for river traffic and the second for both river and sea, but there is no evidence at present forthcoming that the inhabitants of the Indus cities were a maritime race, and such trading as took place between India and Sumer may have been carried by ships belonging to a third nation.