660 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
at Eridu, was called “probably the earliest model of a sailing ship” 
(Lloyd, 1948b). The earliest Sumerian graveyards yielded silver, 
copper, and clay models of boats. 
We know from inscriptions that the 
Sumerians undertook boat voyages 
of several years, cruising to obtain 
luxuries from far lands for their 
temple-states. Sailcloth for boats 
was woven in the highly organized 
workshops of the temples. 
If we accept the opinion that the 
thought is the father of the deed, then we must remember, when speak- 
ing about aviation, that the first story about a man ascending in the 
air on wings was the ancient story of Etana, told on a tablet and illus- 
trated by several carvings on cylinder seals, some dating to the Akkad 
period. Etana was a good shepherd, who, when his flocks and his wife 
were stricken with barrenness, went to search for an herb, source of life. 
Ficure 33.—Archaic boat. Seal. 
Ficure 34.—Cylinder illustrating man’s first attempt to fly. 
He mou.ted an eagle and rose up in the air, but when near his 
goal, he was hurled back to earth. This legend is the earliest known 
tale of flying by man. 
CLOTHING 
Leather seems to have been the main material from which Sumer- 
jans made their clothing in the oldest times, when they lived in a cooler 
mountain land. Sheepskins protected them from bitter winds, and 
it is probably the ancient tradition which survives in the sheepskin 
caps worn by later princes like Gudea and Ur-Ningirsu. The 
Figure 35.—Ladies’ wearing apparel, from seal cylinder. 
