Bitumen is a kind of petroleum that is dark in color, greasy, and viscous. It is a naturally occurring organic residue of the decomposition of plant matter and goes by the names asphalt and tar. This extraordinary naturally occurring compound is both flame - retardant and impervious to water, and for at least the past 40,000 years, people have been using it for a wide variety of work and tool applications. In today's world, there are a number of processed varieties of bitumen that are utilized. These varieties of bitumen are meant for paving streets and roofing homes, in addition to serving as additives for diesel and other forms of gas oils. In British English, the word bitumen is pronounced "BICH-eh-men," whereas, in American English, it is pronounced, "by-TOO-men." sNatural bitumen is the most viscous form of petroleum, consisting of 83 percent carbon, 10 percent hydrogen, and smaller amounts of oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other components. It has the thickest consistency of any kind of petroleum. At lower temperatures, it is hard and brittle; at room temperature, it is flexible; and at higher temperatures, bitumen flows. It is a natural polymer with low molecular weight and a remarkable capacity to adapt to temperature differences. Bitumen deposits can be found in their natural state all over the world. The Pitch Lake in Trinidad and the La Brea Tar Pit in California are two of the most well-known examples, but significant deposits can also be found in the Dead Sea, Venezuela, Switzerland, and the northeastern region of Alberta in Canada. There is a wide range of variations in both the chemical make-up and the consistency of these deposits. Bitumen can be found naturally exuding from terrestrial sources in some locations; in other locations. 
it can be found in liquid pools that can harden into mounds; and in yet other locations, it can be found oozing from underwater seeps and washing up as tar balls along sandy beaches and rocky shorelines. Bitumen was put to use for a wide variety of purposes in days gone by, including as a sealant or glue, as mortar for building, as incense, and as a pigment and texture for decorative purposes on vessels, buildings, or human skin. In addition to its employment in mummification at the end of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt, this substance was also put to good use in the process of waterproofing canoes and other forms of water transportation. The method of processing bitumen was practically identical everywhere: first, it was heated until the gasses condensed and the bitumen melted, and then the formula was adjusted by adding tempering agents to get the desired consistency. Bitumen can be made more viscous by including materials that are waxy or greasy, such as pine resin or beeswax. Minerals, such as ochre, are one example of such elements. Grass and other forms of organic matter can contribute to bitumen's stability. Because of the higher cost of fuel used during processing, processed bitumen was a more expensive commodity than raw bitumen. The Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals are credited with making the first known use of bitumen approximately 40,000 years ago. Bitumen was discovered adhering to stone tools at Neanderthal sites such as Gura Cheii Cave in Romania and Hummal and Umm El Tlel in Syria. This was most likely used to attach a wooden or ivory haft to the sharp-edged implements. During the late Uruk and Chalcolithic periods in Mesopotamia, at sites such as Hacinebi Tepe in Syria, bitumen was employed for a variety of purposes, including the construction of houses and the waterproofing of reed boats. The history of the expansionist period of Mesopotamian Uruk has been given new light as a result of research into the sources of bitumen. 
During the Uruk period (3600-3100 BC), Mesopotamia built an intercontinental commerce system by establishing commercial colonies in what is now the southeastern part of Turkey, Syria, and Iran. This allowed Mesopotamia to trade with other continents. Seals and other pieces of evidence suggest that textiles from southern Mesopotamia and copper, stone, and lumber from Anatolia were part of the trading network; however, the existence of sourced bitumen has allowed historians to map out the trade. For instance, it was discovered that the majority of the bitumen in Bronze Age Syrian sites originated from the Hit seepage on the Euphrates River in southern Iraq. These sites are located in Syria. Researchers have discovered numerous different sources of bitumen in Mesopotamia and the Near East by consulting historical records and conducting geological surveys. These researchers have defined the chemical signatures for a large number of seeps and deposits by conducting analyses using a variety of spectroscopy, spectrometry, and elemental analytical techniques. Archaeologists have had some success in determining the origin of items by conducting chemical analyses on samples taken from archaeological sites. According to Schwartz and colleagues (2016), the use of bitumen as a trade good may have originally begun as a result of its application as a waterproofing material on reed boats, which were used to transport people and commodities across the Euphrates River. The bitumen that originated in northern Mesopotamia eventually made its way to the Persian Gulf during the Ubaid period, which began at the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. The oldest known reed boat was found at the site of H3 at As-Sabiyah in Kuwait. It was dated to around 5000 BC and was coated with bitumen. The bitumen on the boat originated from the Ubaid site in Mesopotamia. The asphalt samples that were found at the somewhat later site of Dosariyah in Saudi Arabia came from bitumen seepages in Iraq. These seepages were a component of the larger Mesopotamian commerce networks that existed during the Ubaid Period 3. 
Bitumen History
A significant role of bitumen in the embalming processes of ancient Egyptian mummies may be traced back to the end of the New Kingdom, which occurred approximately 1100 B.C. In point of fact, the word "mummy" derives from the Arabic word "mumiyyah," which signifies bitumen. This is where the name "mummy" comes from. The word "mummy" originates from the ancient city of Mumiyyah. Bitumen was an integral component of Egyptian embalming methods throughout the Third Intermediate era and into the Roman period. This was in addition to the more customary mixes of pine resins, animal fats, and beeswax. During the Third Intermediate period and into the Roman period. Several Roman authors, such as Diodorus Siculus (who lived in the first century BC) and Pliny (who lived in the first century AD), mention that bitumen was sold to Egyptians so that it might be used in the process of embalming. Pliny was the first Roman author to make this observation. It was thought, before more refined chemical analysis was available, that the black balms used throughout Egyptian dynasties were treated with bitumen and combined with fat or oil, beeswax, and resin. This was before more refined chemical analysis was accessible. Despite the lack of evidence to the contrary, this was the case. The results of a recent investigation that was carried out by Clark and colleagues (2016) indicate that bitumen was not included in any of the balms that were used to preserve mummies that were made prior to the New Kingdom. However, the practice of adding bitumen to mummies first appeared during the Third Intermediate period (about 1064-525 BC) and the Late era (around 525-332 BC). After the year 332, throughout the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, it became the most widespread technique. 
After the end of the Bronze Age, the trade in bitumen that had been going on in Mesopotamia lasted for a considerable amount of time. Researchers from Russia recently discovered a find of a Greek amphora on the Taman peninsula, which is situated on the northern bank of the Black Sea. The amphora was full of bitumen at the time of its discovery. The ancient Roman port of Dibba in the United Arab Emirates was excavated, and a variety of artifacts, including a huge number of big jars and other things, were retrieved from the site. These samples either contained bitumen that originated from the Hit seepage in Iraq or bitumen that was processed with bitumen that originated from other Iranian sources that have not been identified. The most recent findings from studies carried out during the pre-Classic and post-Classic periods Bitumen was used to stain human bones that were discovered by researchers in Mesoamerica. They believe that the bitumen was used as a ritual dye. Researchers Argáez and associates contend that it is more likely that the staining was formed by applying heated bitumen to stone tools that were used to dismember those remains. They say this explanation is more probable. The findings of their study supported this hypothesis. Within the burial mounds at Sutton Hoo in England, dating back to the seventh century, shards of bitumen were discovered spread about the site, particularly in the area of the remains of a helmet. These bits of bitumen were found in the shape of shiny black lumps. The shards have been identified as bitumen that originated from a source near the Dead Sea, according to a recent reanalysis (Burger and colleagues 2016). This piece of evidence is extremely scarce, yet it demonstrates without a reasonable doubt that there was an ongoing commercial network connecting Europe and the Mediterranean during the early medieval period. 
When the fragments were first unearthed and investigated in 1939, it was determined that they were made of "Stockholm tar," which is a substance that is produced by burning pine wood. In the prehistoric period, the Chumash people who lived in the Channel Islands off the coast of California used bitumen as body paint for rituals involving the treatment of illness, the expression of grief, and the act of burial. In addition to that, they used it to attach fishhooks to cordage and projectile points to shafts. In addition to that, they used it to secure shell beads onto implements like mortars and pestles, and steatite pipes. In addition to this, asphalt was used as a means of waterproofing basketry and sealing boats that were meant for use on the ocean. The deposits in the Cave of the Chimneys on San Miguel Island contain the earliest bitumen ever discovered in the Channel Islands. These deposits have been dated to between 10,000 and 7,000 calendrical years before the present. During the Middle Holocene (7000-3500 cal BP), the amount of bitumen in the environment increased, and evidence of tarred pebble clusters and basketry impressions can be found as early as 5,000 years ago. It's possible that the fluorescence of bitumen was responsible for the creation of the plank canoe, also known as the tomol, during the late Holocene (3500-200 cal BP). Native inhabitants in California traded asphalt both in liquid form and as hand-shaped pads that were wrapped in grass and rabbit skin to prevent the asphalt from sticking together. Asphalt was traded both in liquid form and as hand-shaped pads. It was thought that terrestrial seeps produced a higher quality adhesive and caulking that could be utilized for the tomol canoe, whereas tarballs were considered to be of lower quality.
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