 As Sarah Ridge pointed out in one of her recent research projects about ancient watercraft in the Levant, ships transport and transfer people and objects from one liminal location to another across an unknowable surface and volume of diluted territory and back again. And in this regard, the ship is the most direct physical mediator between the sea and the sky. Navigation is one of the most ancient transportation means of mankind. More ancient than Homo sapiens used at least since the Middle Pleistocene epoch. It was already achieved by Neanderthals and even as far back as Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis. Watercraft were necessary to colonize the islands visible from the coast such as Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. However, it was a single technological invention that changed navigation forever, allowing humankind to colonize the world, the sailboat. It is the sail, in fact, that permits the crossing of longer stretches of the sea with less effort by man. Furthermore, it is the sail that symbolizes the link between sky and sea taking advantage of the wind and transforming the dangerous and invisible power of the weather into a smart propulsion system. In the history of navigation, it is generally pointed out that the Egyptians invented the sail around the fourth millennium BC in the so-called Nakada period. The pre-Denastic still somewhat obscure historical period before the birth of the pharaonic kingdom. This painted figurative decoration on the typical Nakada pottery is considered to be the first artistic representation of a sailing boat with a bow mast and a square sail, the first known shape of nautical sails. This paper will analyze the history of the nautical technology related in particular to sailing as seen from the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. However, it is impossible to exclude the possibility of a contemporaneous invention of the sailboat in different geographical and cultural areas. But we want to explore the possibility of the earliest invention of sailing technology in the Mesopotamian prehistory in the Arab Persian Gulf during the fourth and fifth millennium BC. Looking at its possible spread through the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea with a direct influence through Egypt also in the eastern and central Mediterranean watercraft history during the exchanges and commercial contacts between the first pre-urban communities. The first representation of boats in the Near East comes from southeastern Mesopotamia and is dated back to the Ubaid period between 6000 and 4300 BC. At that time, southern Mesopotamia was a wetland, mostly composed of extended marshland and a maritime coastline on the Arabian Persian Gulf, placed about 200 kilometers further north than today. Between the marshlands and the sea several small settlements appeared in the seascape called Turtlebacks, settlement system called the Turtleback Settlement System by Jennifer Poornal. Water was thus a natural way of communication between this kind of settlement and it is not surprising that they developed great experience in watercraft with the raw material available in the region, reeds and bitumen. At the site of the Ubaid period, both along the sea coast and in the hinterland along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, archaeological excavations have discovered several clay models of boats. Mostly they are related to re-under construction with coated parts, flat hulls and slightly curved bows and sterns, probably bitumen coated to waterproof the vessel. These are very simple boats clearly related to river enablation made of materials easy to find in southern Mesopotamia and which are still in use in the Iraqi marshland area of the Dukhwara region. At first, these boats were used for fishing and moving between the Turtleback Settlements. Nevertheless, a boat clay model of Ubaid IV period, 4,800 to 4,300 BC discovered during the excavations at Eridu in southern Mesopotamia shows a larger and much deeper hull with a feature similar to a mast socket. Even if this interpretation of the feature has been challenged, the position towards the bow is clearly consistent with the mast for a single sail, leaving a seating space on the stone for the helmsman. This suggests the use of a mast and sail in Mesopotamia. This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by a painted decoration on Ubaid pottery from As-Sabiya clearly representing a large boat with a deep hull and a biped mast suggesting a complex sailing system. The wood for the mast, ever rare in the area, was possibly found in the neighboring region of southern Mesopotamia. Both to the north and to the east, my contacts with the Ubaid culture is still as well attested. The discovery of imported Ubaid pottery in sites along the Arabian peninsula mystifies to the presence of sea navigation as early as the 5th millennium BC. This could indicate that the simple reed on both flat boats were used to navigate in the marshland or downstream, while probably larger sailing ships were used for longer journeys up the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the Gulf or over the open sea. Considering this hypothesis, it is interesting to mention a recent discovery during the archaeological excavations at Tel Surkul, ancient Egin in southern Mesopotamia, coordinated by the Euphia. During the 2017 archaeological campaign, a fragment of the boat model was discovered in Area B and in an archaeological context connected to sacred structures dated to the Ubaid 4 period. A clay model represents a boat with a deep v-shaped hull that can be used only for open sea navigation. The small holes in the ends of the boat and the marsh socket strongly indicate the presence of a sail. In the following Uruk period, the 4th millennium BC, the first Sumerian settlements of southern Mesopotamia, evolved as the first proto open communities in human history. In particular, during the later period, 3,400 to 3,100 BC, the site of Uwaka, ancient Uruk, becomes the first city of Mesopotamia, with a well-organized society, a central elite and a redistributive economy founded on the extensive exploitation of the agricultural landscape. In this period, the main commercial route moves towards the north, as is testified by the colonies in inverted commas of Ciebel Aruda and Habuka Kibira in northern Syria, looking for mineral resources. This is perhaps the reason why representations of boats on the personal cylinder seals pertaining to the urban elites also manage public administration are almost all related to simple boats with a flat hull, slightly curved ends, typical for river navigation, probably of rebundled construction, but sometimes with more complex construction in finding the use of wood. This is the case of the ceremonial boats. I don't know if you circle that, or I guess it's the next one. This is the case of the ceremonial boats, that show a man, punting at the front and another paddling or steering at the back, with a high curved back embraced with an upright, sometimes joined to the curve of two parallel cross pieces, with the bow also high and curved and topped with blossom-like motifs. Usually, these boats carry a structure on the deck of the ship, mostly interpreted as shrines, due to the presence of individuals engaged in devotional activities. These sacred scenes have been connected with the processions of the divine statues along the rivers and canals, connecting the settlements that took place during the religious festivals, which were essential moments in the economic life of the first Mesopotamian cities. Thus, it is not strange that the Sumerian priests of the Lake of Uruk period decided to represent them on their personal cylinder seals. Nevertheless, in a unique instance of a seal impression of this period, a sailing boat could be interpreted, testifying that the revolution of sail technology and probably also of the sea navigation did not stop in the procto-urban societies of southern Mesopotamia. In particular, the boat has a high bow, several decorations or rectangular features along the sides, a small rectangular structure on the deck and a mast towards the frontal end, with a line running from the top of the mast towards the back of the boat that could represent a sclementization of the sail, in this case of a rare triangular shape, or the rope used to stretch the mince. The ship moves along away from a settlement indicated on the left from the frontal representation of the city temple, perhaps located among the sea coast or along a river. However, even if this example seems to refer to a sailing boat, it must be mentioned that in the proto-literate nae-form signs, the scammatized boats never have the mast clearly depicted. In the following German Nash period, 3,100 to 2,900 B.C., this is a formative historical moment in Mesopotamia, preceding the birth of the city-states in the region. At this time, German Nash pottery imported from Mesopotamia is present in Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman Peninsula, indicating the establishment of regular contacts towards the west along the sea coast, possibly as far as the Red Sea and the western Egyptian shoreline. Even if it is still a matter of heated debate in the scientific community, I think that the presence of cylinder seals and pottery of the German Nash period in the pre-dynastic Egypt of Nakada II period should be reasonable proof of direct contact between these pre-urban cultures, not mediated by a long improbable continental contact through Syria and Palestine. The German Nash seals present a schematic style mostly of animals or geometric designs without a lot of space for watercraft. Nevertheless, representations of boats coming from Egypt could be related to Mesopotamian vessels. In particular, in the famous tomb 100 at Hirakon called the Painted Tomb, the interaction between a group of Egyptian boats with one black vessel with a high curved bow different from the others is represented. Black boats so different from all the others have been tentatively ascribed to Sumerian due to the similitude of the profile of the ship with the boats depicted in the late Quran and early dynastic cylinder seals. Furthermore, the representations on the Jebel-Arak knife is also very interesting. It is considered as a Mesopotamian imitation of or import and tentatively the proof of a military fight of an, okay, sorry, a start again. It is considered as a Mesopotamian imitation or important tentatively the proof of a military fight between Egyptian and Mesopotamians at the end of the 4th millennium. It makes too much sense at the beginning, but there you go. In particular, while the frontum decoration shows a typical Mesopotamian scene of the Sumerian king depicted as a lord of the animals together with a scene of hunting the reverse shows two fighting scenes in the normal register there are two rows of boats divided by a line of fallen enemies. The shape of the ships in the upper row are different to those in the lower row. In the upper row they have a high bow and stern similar to the boats depicted on the late Uruk and early dynastic cylinder seals while in the lower one they are similar to the Egyptian vessels depicted on painted vessels of Nakada too period. This has suggested the possibility that the scenes could represent a naval battle in the Red Sea. Yeah, I move around a little bit but it doesn't matter. I've lost myself. Whether this hypothesis is correct or not it is interesting to notice that both the ships depicted in 2100 at Hira Khan for this and in the Jebelaric knife and on the Jebelaric knife seem to be propelled by oars and not by sails which is not the case with other representations of boats from Egypt such as a rare painted vessel of the Nakada too period with a boat with a rectangular sail on the left and on the rock carvings found along the Wadi Hammer match connecting directly the Nile River with the Red Sea on the right. In particular one of them shows a very clear mast with a rectangular sail and another sail hoisted on the mast of the ship. Both these carvings and the painting on the jar show long boats with a high bow with a curved profile and the vast very close to the front of the ship. These are features very similar to the Mesopotamian boats from the 5th and 4th millennium BC. Could these similarities justify the hypothesis of an eastern origin of the sailing technology in watercraft being transferred from Sumer towards Egypt? In the following early dynastic period of Mesopotamia during the 3rd millennium BC the representation of boats on cylinder seals became popular once again, but they mostly referred to sacred boats used for religious processions and activities. In all these high and low-browed vessels, no mast is visible and a more S shaped form at the bow and stern becomes characteristic. The evolution of the ideological concept of the ship in the sacred world is its deification on the Akkadian cylinder seals at the end of the 3rd millennium BC down on the right. This is the Godboat, a boat with a human prow figure often crowned with a horned mitre who provides the motive power for the boat by means of a punting pole. The horned crown denotes divine status and the passenger or steering wheel is also divine. In the late Sumerian early dynastic period, several kinds of boats are known. Both read and would moreover, a new strong long-distance maritime route towards the east from the Arabic, Arabic Persian Gulf is clearly attested. On the contrary, no more attestations of possible navigation towards the Red Sea and to the west. Dillmun, the Sumerian starts to call the area of Bahrain and Phailaka island during the 3rd millennium BC was the first step on this long trade route from Sumer to Meluha, the Indus valley civilization. From Dillmun, several kinds of boat representations are attested on seals, most of which have sail propulsion. In some cases, the sail is clearly represented always over a rectangular shape, more or less hoisted on the mast. We can presume that these are the ships involved in the new commercial route towards Pakistan and India. In conclusion, the early attestation of sailing is probably to be dated during the diffusion of the Ubaid culture in southern Lithuania in the 5th millennium BC when new maritime routes were explored between the Arabic version Gulf. It was probably during the 4th millennium BC that the maritime contacts between Egypt and the sub-potamia spread the sailing technology towards the west, prior to which the Sumerian economic interests looked east. It is impossible to prove that the sailing technique spread in the eastern Mediterranean from the Egyptian and to exclude that the same technology was invented in different regions in the same period. More research is suggested in this direction, in particular exploring the possibility of new archaeological surveys on the eastern and western shores of the Red Sea in the future. Thank you.