[Artifacts] A 4,000-Year-Old Mesopotamian Boat Has Been Discovered Near Uruk

4,000 year old Mesopotamian boat of Uruk during excavation
In recent Mesopotamian news…

…a team of researchers from the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and the German Archaeological Institute has removed a block of sediment containing traces of a 4,000-year-old boat from a site that was once a river flowing on the outskirts of the ancient city of Uruk, in what is now southern Iraq.

The boat was originally made out of…

…palm leaves, wood and reed. It was then covered in bitumen, also known as tar or asphaltum, a semi-solid kind of petroleum which was used in Mesopotamia in the construction of buildings and for waterproofing reed boats.

Uruk (Unug in Sumerian) was once located on the banks of the Euphrates River in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It was a once powerful city and one of the oldest too. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the main protagonist and hero, Gilgamesh was said to have once occupied the royal seat of the infamous city.

You can read more at Archaeology.org, Ancient Origins and at the Biblical Archaeology Society.