Dugouts 8000 Years, 7000 Miles Apart

There's really no connection between these two stories, aside from the fact that they're both about dugouts.

Chinese Dugout, 8000 BP

First, we have one of the oldest dugout canoes ever discovered, at Kuahuqiao in south China. Dated to 8000 years BP (before present), it's firmly in the Neolithic period, coeval with the early domestication of animals and the earliest instances of agriculture. While far from complete, the canoe and related artifacts present intriguing glimpses into this extremely early example of timber boatbuilding.

Construction of the pine hull was probably done with a combination of stone adzes, which were found at the site, and fire, examples of charring being detected on the hull. Also found was piece of woven matting attached to frame of light timbers -- very likely a square sail and spars. It has been suggested that smaller timbers found near the hull might have been part of an outrigger assembly, but the upper parts of the hull, where outrigger booms would have been attached, are missing. So what was probably a sailing canoe might or might not have been supported by an outrigger.

Three paddles were found in the assemblage, two of them apparently unused and placed carefully beside the canoe. This would appear to be in keeping with the notion of a ritual interment, but the absence of other ritual items beside the hull makes this notion difficult to support.

Among remains of several game species at the site were those of dolphin, probably indicative that the people who built the canoe used it to hunt at sea.

Finland Dugout, 1936

Here's a great video with much to teach about expanded-and-extended dugout construction in the modern era. The canoes were used to gather marsh grass, presumably for fodder.

Items to notice:

• Primary tools: axe, adze, hand-plane (often used by two men at once)
• When hewing the sides, the workers tap them to test for thickness, apparently relying on the sound or feel of the wood as it's struck.
• The interior of the hull is tarred, and the ends are bound with withies, before the process of expanding (spreading) the hull begins.
• The hull is heated first over an open flame, then hot rocks are piled inside. The exterior is swabbed down with a mop, probably to prevent charring on the exterior, and also to prevent splitting.
• At least nine frames are hewed partially to shape, then fitted to the hull, with some adjustment to the frames and some additional spreading of the hull.
• The outer edge of the sheer is tarred, then caulking is stuck to it before the additional strake is added.
• The top strake is mostly cut to shape, then bent on apparently cold, its shape being adjusted as needed.
• When being paddled solo, the paddler sits in the bottom far in the stern, using a double-bladed paddle. The bow rises high out of the water.
• One man would manage the canoe while another walked through the marsh gathering the grass. Note the latter's use of something very much like snowshoes to prevent sinking into the muddy bottom.
• With the canoe weighted with a huge load of wet grass, paddling gives way to poling.

More on Hjortspring

In response to valuable comments from Thomas Armstrong to my previous post, I went back to Landstrom's The Ship: Illustrated History and I find that I was misleading in my description. Landstrom did not suggest a direct connection between the Scandinavian skin boats and the umiak --rather, he suggested that Scandinavians had skin boats that were similar in some respects to umiaks, but he did not imply a technology transfer between the cultures. Sorry for the error, and thanks to Thomas for pointing it out.

I also found more detailed description of the Hjortspring boat's design and construction, some of which contradicts my interpretation of the painting that appeared in the previous post:

The Hjortspring boat with its peculiarities was the result of a very skilful builder's work. It is a round-bottomed boat made of five overlapping planks stitched together, midships 20 ins. broad and 5/8 ins. thick, which are joined to two end-pieces each hewn from a solid block. The bottom plank projects like the end of a runner outside the boat proper, and between this runner and the elongated "noses" of the end-pieces these remarkable vertical end-posts are fitted. When hewing the planks cleats were left into which thin ribs were attached with bass binding. Ten thwarts in the narrow boat gave room for twenty paddlers, and it is believed that the craft was used for warlike purposes.

With its overlapping planks, this boat is approaching subject matter that this blog typically eschews: it appears to be in the line of development to the lapstrake boat that's at the heart of the western boatbuilding tradition. The description of the end-pieces does seem to be similar to those of the Polynesian five-part canoe, which I had discounted in my previous post.

Ancient Scandinavian "Two-Horned" Boats

(click for larger image)

Reader Wade Terzia asked about Bronze Age European boats with "distinctive double-projections at the stem and stern" and known from petroglyphs. Interesting subject.

The Hjortspring boat, found on the Danish island of Als, was, according to marine historian and painter Bjorn Landstrom, "over 43 feet long and over 6 feet wide, built about 200 B.C." Very similar to the petroglyphs shown in the image below, Landstrom makes an interesting point:

The construction has caused much surprise, especially the shapes of the ends which do not appear at all natural for a boat of wood. It is the oldest find made in Scandinavia of a boat built of wood, and I believe that it was made with a hide boat as a model.

So the Hjortspring boat, shown above, was apparently derived from the skin boat, shown below, in which the end projections make perfect sense from a construction standpoint. Landstrom sees a close connection between this skin boat and umiaks, and suggests that the keel extension would allow users to drag the boat ashore with less wear to the skin covering. And the evolution to the sewn-plank boat incorporated the extensions out of habit, not for any good reason in terms of boat construction or usage. Apparently, these extensions were abandoned as soon as builders in the sewn-plank technology figured out that there was no reason to retain them.

Apologies for the poor quality of the Hjortspring image and the wretched stitching together of two scans. It is clickable, however, for a larger view. The image shows numerous planks stitched together, with a bottom member that might be a keel-like structure (but is not a dugout base) that extends beyond the stem and sternposts. The painting does not seem to show the ends to be "crotches" in the manner of the Polynesian five-part canoe: rather, the port and starboard sides of the end pieces of planking appear to be separate pieces that meet at the stem/sternposts.

A caveat: Landstrom's book was published in 1961, and there may be much more recent research that either confirms or contradicts his views. But I just love Landstrom's paintings. I received the book for my 13th birthday, and I still treasure it. If Jerry & Marie Ruebenstahl are out there somewhere, thanks again.