Mesopotamia-Indus Trade

Bronze Age sea trade between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia via the Persian Gulf.

Overview

Mesopotamian texts of the later third millennium BC speak of ships from Meluhha, widely identified with the Indus region, docking at Akkad and bringing carnelian, ivory, timber and copper. Dilmun, on Bahrain, and Magan, around Oman, acted as intermediaries and staging posts. Archaeology supports the texts: Indus seals and etched carnelian beads turn up in Mesopotamian sites such as Ur, and Gulf style seals appear at Indus ports such as Lothal. The trade waned in the early second millennium BC as the Indus cities declined, but it is one of the earliest documented long distance maritime trade networks in the world.