Ancient Navigation
The fish blinked her long lashes and helped you climb into a kuphar that the babbler birds wove just for you. You climbed in, and the wind blew you here.
Who would have guessed that navigating the Euphrates and the Tigris would look essentially the same for 27 centuries? In Nebuchadnezzar’s day, willow roundboats covered with leather were the primary mode of transportation down the river. Herodotus says they paddled with the current, and tradesmen would sell their wares as they moved downstream. When they were ready to go north again, they sold the leather and willow and went north overland.
By American Colony (Jerusalem). Photo Department – Library of Congress
Converted from TIFF to jpg and border cropped before upload., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92982110
Baghdad, 1932
A roundboat or kuphar in 1914
By Baghdad in British Occupation by Freddy Khalastchy, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47544085
Rub a dub dub three . . .hundred men in a tub.
