The Neolithic origins of seafaring in the Arabian Gulf

The inhabitants of the Arabian Gulf were among the world’s earliest maritime traders. Their ships sailed regularly between the Bronze Age civilizations of Mesopotamia, Bahrain and the Indus Valley, and they reached China by sea in the eighth century AD, thus bypassing the long and perilous overland Silk Road route across Central Asia. Now excavations at a coastal site in Kuwait by a team from the Institute have revealed even earlier evidence of maritime activity in the Gulf