Neo-Elamite vessels: Logistic Providers for Upper Persian Gulf Connectivity

The paper shapes an image of logistic providers in the Upper Persian Gulf space during the early to mid-1st millennium BCE. The marshlands provided unique environmental conditions between Southern Mesopotamia and the Susiana coast of Elam, for which indigenous communities had designed a specific type of watercraft. In the Bel-iqbi and Eanna texts, this watercraft is hallimu. The characteristics hallimu boat described in the texts correspond with the flat-bottomed reed-bundled raft-canoe depicted on one of Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs in Nineveh. Remarkably, these raft-canoes resemble the traditional Iranian marsh boats recorded in 19th and early 20th century photographs and sketches.