Wind vanes in the antiquity

Abstract

Mesopotamia: An Akkadian tablet, the original of which was incised between about 1800 and 1600 B.C., makes explicit mention of a wind vane. Further three Sumero-Akkadian “dictionaries” have three different names for the single Akkadian name for wind vane. Since the latest period of flourishing of the Sumerian civilization took place between about 2 100 and 2000 B.C., wind vanes must have been in use in ancient Mesopotamia already about 4000 years ago, i.e. about 2000 years before the Chinese and Greeks had wind vanes. The Mesopotamian wind vanes were made of wood.