865 BC to 860 BC: Early Buoyancy Aids
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
The most critical characteristic of a life jacket is buoyancy. An early example of a buoyancy aid can be seen in a wall panel in the British Museum. It depicts Assyrian soldiers using inflated animal skins to float across a river. In addition to this art panel, there is some evidence that indigenous people used similar methods with hollowed gourds and inflated animal skins.