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Inland waterways boat not blacked for 4,000 years.


Jen-in-Wellies

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4 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Archaeologists have found the 4,000 year old remains of a river boat in what was the city of Uruk in what is now Iraq. It used bitumen based blacking on the hull.

The article says they plan to put it in a museum, rather than paint the interior white and advertise it on Apollo Duck.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/archaeologists-unearth-ancient-sumerian-riverboat-in-iraq/

 

That bitumen blacking has lasted longer than the boat. How come mine doesn't last 4 years, let alone 4000?

Edited by David Mack
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From your link:

 

"All that’s left today of an ancient boat discovered in 2018 in what was formerly Uruk is the bitumen, "

 

So the bit that puzzles me is how do they know these flakes of paint they've found were a 4,000 year old boat?

 

And not, say, a telegraph pole or railway sleeper or the underseal off a scrap transit van left behind 40 years ago by a bunch of travellers? Or even the blacking that fell off David's boat? 

 

Jus' wondering....

 

 

Edited by MtB
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1 minute ago, MtB said:

From your link:

 

"All that’s left today of an ancient boat discovered in 2018 in what was formerly Uruk is the bitumen, "

 

So the bit that puzzles me is how do they know these flakes of paint they've found were a 4,000 year old boat?

 

And not, say, a telegraph pole or railway sleeper or the underside off a scrap transit van left behind 40 years ago by a bunch of travellers? Or even the blacking that fell off David's boat? 

 

Jus' wondering....

It is boat shaped. Bit like the Sutton Hoo Saxon ship burial. All they saw of that one were boat shaped stains in the soil.

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2 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

It is boat shaped. Bit like the Sutton Hoo Saxon ship burial. All they saw of that one were boat shaped stains in the soil.

 

Must be a very big flake of paint they found then!

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Wow!

 

Uruk was home to the eponymous hero king, Gilgamesh. In that tale there is also a reference to a flood survivor, the immortal Utnapishtim and his wife. (Yes, he's basically an early Noah). Anyway, old tablets unearthed referenced the use of copious amounts of bitumen to seal reed boats at the time. This lecture is well worth the hour watch.

 

 

  • Greenie 3
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1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

Couldn't have worked that well or they would have found the wood as well. 😄

 

I bet that's because in some way they didn't follow the manu instructions to the letter...

 

 

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9 hours ago, David Mack said:

That bitumen blacking has lasted longer than the boat. How come mine doesn't last 4 years, let alone 4000?

If my boat rusts so badly there's nothing left but bitumen, I'll probably regret not applying another coat sooner ;)

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