TABLE OF CONTENTS And God said unto Noah Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt coat it within and without with pitch.
Genesis 6:13 14
Petroleum exploration is a very old pursuit, as the preceding quotation illustrates. The Bible contains many references to the use of pitch or asphalt collected from the natural seepages with which the Middle East abounds. Herodotus, writing in about 450 B.C., described oil seeps in Carthage (Tunisia) and the Greek island Zachynthus (Herodotus, ca. 450 B.C.). He gave details of oil extraction from wells near Ardericca in modern Iran, although the wells could not have been very deep because fluid was extracted in a wineskin on the end of a long pole mounted on a fulcrum. Oil, salt, and bitumen were produced simultaneously from these wells. Throughout the first millenium A.D. oil and asphalt were gathered from natural seepages in many parts of the world. The early uses of oil were for medication, waterproofing, and warfare. Oil was applied externally for wounds and rheumatism and administered internally as a laxative. From the time of Noah pitch has been used to make boats watertight. Pitch, asphalt, and oil have long been employed in warfare. When Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 B.C., he scattered the Indian elephant corps by charging them with horsemen waving pots of burning pitch. Nadir Shah employed a similar device, impregnating the...
