The first documented combat divers in human history? A 3,000-year-old relief appears to depict an ᴀssyrian soldier from Mesopotamia using an inflated goatskin bag, possibly as a flotation device or breathing apparatus. This artifact is housed in the British Museum of Antiquities.

The ᴀssyrian military ingenuity, however, didn’t stop at mixed cavalry forces and incredible siege crafts. One particular bas-relief aptly showcases how the ᴀssyrian army (probably the ones ᴀssaulting from the riverfront) was provided with specially designed goatskin-bags that could be inflated and then used to ferry across the water, with the horses tethered and guided behind them. In a similar manner, their enormous war machines were basically modular in design. So these engines and towers could be dismantled and tied to specially devised marine-crafts made of skin and easily hauled across rivers, to be later ᴀssembled outside the city walls. And we stretch the scope a bit, there are also references to scuba diving in ancient ᴀssyria, as is represented in a 3000-year-old fresco that shows men swimming under water, using some kind of breathing device.