Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.114

c12.114

While river traffic must have been considerable, there is no direct evidence of the use of boats, and only two representations exist. One is a rough drawing scratched on a sherd of pottery, but one can recognize the high prow and stern, a mast and furled sail, and a steersman with a long steering-oar. The other is a more carefully executed engraving on a seal, and shows clearly a vessel with very high prow and stern, and apparently made of reeds, the lashings of which are distinctly seen. Amidships is a square cabin (or shrine), perhaps made also of reeds, or as a tent. A steersman is very sketchily drawn in, seated on a raised platform in the bows. Vessels of similar type, as far as can be judged from representations, were characteristic of prehistoric Mesopotamia.