The ḫallimu watercraft: a logistic provider for the Upper Persian Gulf

Abstract

During the early to mid-1st millennium BCE, it was the ḫallimu watercraft that provided a nautical connectivity for a multi-ethnical community in the Upper Persian Gulf. Based on current knowledge from the Bēl-ibni and Eanna archive, the ḫallimu was exclusively used in the marshes and lagoon/khūr (ÍD.mar-rat) of the Sealand-Susiana region, manually propelled, and well-suited for transporting large quantities of war booty, commercial goods, and people. The ḫallimu was both inexpensive (12 shekels of silver) and quick to construct (during raids) meaning they were built from materials that were readily available in the marshes: reeds, or more likely, bulrush for their flexibility. Reed-bundled rafts, being the only type of watercraft depicted in the marsh context in Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs, support the hypothesis that ḫallimu refers to a reed-bundled watercraft. The reed-bundled watercraft in Neo-Assyrian iconography demonstrates variations in shape, which could be an adaptation to different purposes that the watercraft served in real life. Alternatively, like teutans and shāsh, they were handcrafted and thus show personalization in the design. The ethnographic data has provided valuable insights into the construction materials, the feasibility, and estimated time required to build a flotilla of ḫallimanu. The cargo capacity described in cuneiform texts offer an excellent dataset for further research, particularly through an experimental case-study. By testing the volume and cargo capacity per raft, as well as evaluating its fully loaded navigability, historians will be better equipped to assess the historical impact of these rafts, such as the ḫallimu, in fostering connectivity between wetland societies in the Persian Gulf region