What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts

DOCUMENT Citation Only Steve Boles. William Iseminger. Lori Belknap.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Guth dugout is named for the finder Matt Guth, who found the dugout on a sandbar in a meander portion of the St. Francois River in 2008. The dugout was exposed after floodwaters receded and due to the find location, Guth was determined to be the rightful owner. The dugout was over 6 m long and in remarkable shape given its age. In 2009, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Rodning. Sissel Schroeder.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dugout canoes, typically made by felling trees then hollowing out logs by burning and chipping, are a widespread form of watercraft throughout the world, and one with great antiquity. There are archaeologically known dugouts from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as well as from Australia and Oceania. Early examples of dugouts date to as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Cranford. Chris Southerly. Kim Kenyon. Stephen Atkinson.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent discoveries of dugout canoes from North Carolina and elsewhere have renewed public interest in these types of artifacts as well as interest from several local Indigenous communities, while also highlighting the increasing threats to this type of cultural heritage. North Carolina’s abundance of coastal lakes and rivers have yielded a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Waselkov.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Modern discoveries of Mississippian dugout canoes and a Middle Woodland canoe canal in coastal Alabama have prompted historical and archaeological research on water travel in the region. Applications of multi-spectral lidar and geophysical survey are proving useful in defining canal features, which have been partially obscured by changes in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Larry Kinsella. Steve Boles.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2023, a large group of volunteers engaged in an experimental archaeology project to manufacture a dugout canoe with stone tools. A large tulip poplar was felled with stone axes and the 8,600-pound tree was then transformed with stone axes and adzes into a 1,600-pound, 4 m long dugout. The tree felling and reduction process combined took over...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexandra Biar.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In a cultural area where geography conspires against ease of exchange, Mesoamerican societies discovered technical answers adapted to their needs. At a time when the exchange of merchandise and goods relied mainly on human transport, some civilizations such as the Olmecs, Mayas, and Mexicas turned to accessible, high-performance waterways....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Wood. Virginia Richards.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Long before colonization, coastal inhabitants in Carolina’s Lowcountry used dugout canoes for trading, fishing, and gathering oysters. When the English intruded into this watery environment in 1670, many settlers migrated from Barbados, bringing captive Africans and hopes for establishing a profitable system of slave-based, staple-crop...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick Livingood.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. David Hurst Thomas (1972) described how model building and simulation can lead to serendipitous discoveries, that is findings that were not originally intended. In several projects to simulate cost distance of canoe travel in eastern North America, most of the memorable and impactful lessons have been a result of serendipity. This paper will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles McGimsey.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Louisiana has 31 dugout and plank canoes spanning the last 2,000 years recorded in the archaeological site files. The collection reflects a diversity of shapes and sizes in both Indigenous and Euroamerican assemblages, suggesting that beyond the required linear shape, individual preference and intended function significantly influenced form. This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Merriman. Christopher Olson.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maritime Heritage Minnesota (MHM) has completed four Minnesota Dugout Canoe Projects that focused on 13 museum-held artifacts and one dugout canoe in situ in Lake Minnetonka. The artifacts were measured, photographed, drawn, and sampled for 14C dating. Two of the canoes underwent 3D analysis using a handheld scanner and underwater photogrammetry....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel LaDu. Sean McCraw.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1986, Sam McGahey published the first compendium of Mississippi dugout canoes. He listed the attributes of eight watercraft including recovery location, date of manufacture, wood type, method of construction, and dimensions. McGahey also included a composite drawing to better facilitate comparison. While dugouts are only infrequently...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tim Spahr. Arthur Anderson. Gabriel Hrynick. Gemm-Jayne Hundgell. Arthur Spiess.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2018, the Cape Porpoise Archaeological Alliance (CPAA) located a dugout canoe during a surface survey of the Cape Porpoise tidal flats in Kennebunkport, Maine. A sample of the canoe dated to between 1275 and 1380 cal AD making it the oldest known from the region. Professional archaeologists and volunteers excavated the canoe from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sissel Schroeder. Tamara Thomsen.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Efforts to trace 80 dugout canoes reported from Wisconsin resulted in the identification and documentation of more than 66 and the recognition that six had been destroyed or lost. Wisconsin dugouts range in age from 4,000 years old to the early twentieth century. Dugouts were made from a variety of types of wood and those that date to the last...