Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now

important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. The rise
in importance was due to the invention of the internal combustion engine, the rise
in commercial aviation, and the importance of petroleum to industrial organic
chemistry, particularly the synthesis of plastics, fertilisers, solvents, adhesives
and pesticides.

Before more than 4300 years ago, bitumen was mentioned when the Sumerians used it
to make boats. Tablet of the legend of the birth of Sargon of Akkad, mentioned a
basket which was closed by straw and bitumen. More than 4000 years ago, according
to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, asphalt was used in the construction of the
walls and towers of Babylon; there were oil pits near Ardericca (near Babylon), and
a pitch spring on Zacynthus.[8] Great quantities of it were found on the banks of
the river Issus, one of the tributaries of the Euphrates. Ancient Persian tablets
indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their
society.

The use of petroleum in ancient China dates back to more than 2000 years ago. The I
Ching, one of the earliest Chinese writings, cites that oil in its raw state,
without refining, was first discovered, extracted, and used in China in the first
century BCE. In addition, the Chinese were the first to record the use of petroleum
as fuel as early as the fourth century BCE.[9][10][11] By 347 CE, oil was produced
from bamboo-drilled wells in China.[12][13]

Crude oil was often distilled by Persian chemists, with clear descriptions given in
Arabic handbooks such as those of Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes).[14] The
streets of Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from petroleum that became
accessible from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were
exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan. These fields were described
by the Arab geographer Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī in the 10th century, and by
Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds
of shiploads.[15] Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to
produce flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain,
distillation became available in Western Europe by the 12th century.[16] It has
also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură.[17]

Sophisticated oil pits, 4.5 to 6 metres (15 to 20 ft) deep, were dug by the Seneca
People and other Iroquois in Western Pennsylvania as early as 1415–1450. The French
General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm encountered Seneca using petroleum for ceremonial
fires and as a healing lotion during a visit to Fort Duquesne in 1750.[18]

Early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry

based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under
production.[19]

Pechelbronn (Pitch fountain) is said to be the first European site where petroleum
has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where
petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, notably for medical
purposes. Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century.[20]

In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th
century.[21] Both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the
petroleum technologies.