Clay boat from Shuruppak

Clay boat model dated to 2200-2000 BC from Shuruppak, modern Tell Fara, an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres south of Nippur on the banks of the Euphrates. Currently in the Penn Museum...

Here's the real thing, a boat made from reed bundles...

I talked about these boats in my post "Canals" where I talked about how knowing the best time to cut reed for boat building can helps us understand why the sun god Shamash is depicted with reed cutting knife.

This is the same type of boat in which the god of water and annual flood is depicted sailing down Tigris and Euphrates...2300–2150 BC. 

Talked about it in my post "Enki's little boat" where I discussed interesting animal calendar markers from the poem describing Enki's boat trip...

Here is the same Enki's flood boat, from a Sumerian Early Dynoastic seal, also depicting the goat (mating of wild goats, Oct/Nov, beginning of the wet season) and bull (calving of wild cattle, Apr/May, end of the wet season, beginning of the annual flood). 

I talked about it in my post "Rain and flood"...

This is also the same boat shown here as being Enki...I talked about this amazing seal in this post "Fertility goddess with poppies". Lots of animal and plant calendar markers everywhere...Including grain (important 🙂)...

And the same flood boat depicted on this perforated votive limestone plaque dated to ca. 2700-2650BC currently in Louvre...I talked about this in my post "Feast plaque from Louvre"...

So boat from Shuruppak is the symbol of???

Look at this: "Shuruppak became a grain storage and distribution city and had more silos than any other Sumerian city"...

Boat in the Grain storage...Check this post, "A person in a little boat", about the same "Little boat" depicted on this Proto-Elamite tablet from Iran, dated to 3400-3100 BC...

Is that grain sticking out of the butt of the "person in the little boat"? Apr/May, the beginning of the flood, is also the beginning of the grain harvest, and Jul/Aug, the end of the flood, is also the end of the grain harvest...Interesting...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...