- Rowboat
Although it is common knowledge that rowboats were used as far back as 3000 B.C.E. in Egypt as a means of traveling and trading along the Nile River, evidence has been uncovered recently to suggest that they were in existence much earlier. In a grave uncovered in the Mesopotamian city of Eridu, archaeologists found a clay model of a boat, and the grave is thought to have been dug before 4000 B.C.E. Mesopotamia widely cited as "the cradle of civilization” -was the name given in the Hellenistic Period to a broad geographical area that took in what we now know as lraq and a part of western loan.
The model they found was of a wide boat with a shallow bottom, rather like a barge, which was designed to float on the shallow rivers of Mesopotamia. Both the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers were part of the region and, flowing from the north of the area to the south, they quickly became an integral part of the transport system set up by the emerging non-nomadic civilizations.
Since wood was in scarce supply, most of the boats in Mesopotamia were fashioned from the hollow and buoyant reeds that grew abundantly in the marshes at the mouths of the two rivers. The reeds were molded into a boat shape and held tightly in place with ropes. Bitumen was used to cover the reeds, calk the boat, and make it watertight.
Floating downstream on the current was simple enough, but going upstream was problematic. it was common practice to use animals walking alongside the water to drag the boat back but, as was discovered, often it was easier and quicker to row.
SEE ALSO: CARPENTRY, DUGOUT CANOE, SAILS, RUDDER, STEAMBOAT, SUBMARINE, MOTORBOAT, JET BOAT
- Rubber Ball
While other ancient civilizations were playing with balls made of stitched-up cloth or cow bladders, the people of Mesoamerica (present-day Mexico and Central America) were playing a game of life and death using balls made from a processed rubber. By adding the juice of the morning glory vine to latex (raw liquid rubber) harvested from the native rubber tree (Castillo elastica), they created balls that had great bounce.
As early as 1600 B.C.E, the Mesoamericans used this method to make resilient rubber balls that defied the natural brittleness of solid latex. Their amalgamation could be shaped into any conceivable form, but would harden within minutes, making it impossible to reshape the object afterward. They used this process for a variety of artifacts and produced balls of different sizes, the biggest being larger than a volleyball and weighing up to eight pounds (3.6 kg). These were then used in ritual ball games that had great political and religious significance.
While modern followers of sports refer to matches as “a matter of life and death," this was actually the case for the contestants on Central America's fields and ball courts. For the Mesoamericans, the games epitomized their worldview of life as a struggle between good and evil. Winners were showered with riches, whereas the leader of the "evil” losers was sacrificed in the belief that this was the only way to keep the sun shining and the crops growing.
The Mesoamericans' rubber ball was therefore a potentially life-changing device long before Charles Goodyear's heat- and sulfur-treated gum of 1839 added a new facet to leisure activities.
SEE ALSO: SYNTHETIC RUBBER, SILICONE RUBBER