Plankboat skeuomorphs in Bronze Age logboats: a Scandinavian perspective

Abstract

Abstract

Delivering the Deep: Maritime archaeology for the 21st century: selected papers from IKUWA 7

“…The Lee's Island boat has been dated to 3023 ± 27 BP (1390-1134 cal BC, 2-sigma) and, whilst it is still a logboat, the use of similar sewn plank boat technology to repair the splits provides the earliest evidence for the existence of such technology in Ireland during this period. The emerging evidence for the wider use of plank built boats outside of Britain is also being highlighted (Crumlin- Pedersen and Trakadas 2003;Kastholm 2015;, with a number of Bronze Age and Iron Age examples from Denmark and Norway now identified. Consequently, the plank boat technology observed in the Lee's Island logboat can also be viewed as an 'indicator of a broader interregional tradition of plankbuilding in Western Europe' as noted by Kastholm (2015Kastholm ( : 1369.…”

“…The emerging evidence for the wider use of plank built boats outside of Britain is also being highlighted (Crumlin- Pedersen and Trakadas 2003;Kastholm 2015;, with a number of Bronze Age and Iron Age examples from Denmark and Norway now identified. Consequently, the plank boat technology observed in the Lee's Island logboat can also be viewed as an 'indicator of a broader interregional tradition of plankbuilding in Western Europe' as noted by Kastholm (2015Kastholm ( : 1369. Nevertheless, this raises an intriguing question: if sewn plank boat building techniques were known, why did they not supersede logboats?…”

“…the second millennium BC) and that many of the ancient boats (for example, those depicted at Kanozero) could in fact have been plank boats (Kolpakov and Shumkin 2012b). Plank boats appear in the British Isles at the boundary between the fourth and third millennia BC (Kastholm 2015), but their presence in mainland Europe during that period is questionable.…”

Early Boats in Scandinavia: New Evidence from Early Iron Age Bog Finds in Arctic Norway

“…Boat remains in Scandinavia predating the Iron Age include log boats dating back to the Mesolithic in Denmark and the Bronze Age on the Scandinavian Peninsula (Lanting 2000;Kastholm 2015) and a bark canoe from Byslätt in south-western Sweden recently dated to 900-800 BC (Von Arbin and Lindberg 2017). These vessels were arguably designed for inland waters or nearshore use.…”

“…These vessels were arguably designed for inland waters or nearshore use. Kastholm (2015) has demonstrated that a considerable number of Bronze Age log boats have features that mimic plank-built boats as yet undocumented outside Britain, thus signaling participation in a larger maritime network (Van de Noort 2006). The earliest remains of a true seagoing vessel in Scandinavia is the Hjortspring boat from southern Denmark dated to c. 350 BC (Crumlin-Pedersen and Trakadas 2003;Kaul 2003a).…”