A Comparison of Mesolithic Danish Logboats and Pacific Northwest Canoes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Background: Pacific Northwest ethnographic information about canoe usage and building techniques can be compared to the many Danish mesolithic logboats currently in the archaeological record. Both maritime cultures created watercraft from single tree trunks. There are no surviving precontact Pacific Northwest canoes, and many Danish mesolithic logboats. Conversely, there is no ethnographic information for Danish mesolithic maritime cultures, whereas the Pacific Northwest has post-contact ethnographies and historical sources showing a dynamic but continuous use of single-trunk boat technology.

Method: A comparison of single-trunk watercraft technology, environmental similarities, and prehistoric population patterns in similar maritime cultures. Watercraft technology ties together environment and social organisation in a way few other artifacts do, becoming Hein Bjerck’s human-boat-machine.

Results: Single-trunk watercraft technology was developed in the face of similar environmental pressures and resources, and the comparison illuminates technological convergence between temporally and geographically distant cultures.

Conclusion: An adaptation to and reliance on single-trunk maritime watercraft contributed to the formation of decentralised societies with semi-permanent settlement patterns, and resource management, allowing stable population growth.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37411.0