When were the first "boats" built?
 | History of Ships Prehistoric Craft Jean Vaucher (April 2014) |
Index
- Big Bang to Civilization
- Prehistoric Boats
- Boats of Antiquity (...to come)
- The Age of Discovery
- 19th Century
This section covers watercraft used by Man before the Age of Metal, the invention of writing and the rise of kingdoms; roughly before 3,000 BCE.
When were the first "boats" built?
The oldest recovered boat in the world is the 3 meter long Pesse canoeconstructed around 8,000 BCE [ Wikipedia ]; but more elaborate craft existed even earlier. A rock carving in Azerbaijan dating from ~10,000 BCE shows a reed boat manned by about 20 paddlers. However, thevery first sea-worthy boats were most probably built long before that, about 800,000 years ago, not by Man but by his predecessor Homo Erectus, a smart naked ape.Erectus originated about 1.8 million years ago (Mya) in Africa and the species survived for over 1.5 million years before being supplanted by Neanderthals and our own Homo Sapiens. Erectus had learned how to put cutting edges on stones and perhaps how to control fire; but he lacked the gene for speech and language. For more details on the evolution of Man - and the Universe, click HERE.
Erectus lived through the Ice Age(s), a period of repeated glaciations, each lasting about 200,000 years, separated by warm spells. At the extreme, glaciers covered up to 30% of the world's land mass and tied up huge volumes of water resulting in the sea level dropping 100 m or more. This created temporary land passages between islands and continents. At some point, England was connected to Europe, Siberia to Alaska and parts of Indonesia linked to mainland Asia.
The Island Corridor
Nothing remains of these early boats - which have long since rotted away; but, knowing what plants and tools were available at the time, anthropologists can guess at the kinds of watercraft they used. The current theory is that bamboo rafts like the one shown below were used. Recently, this hypothesis was tested by building rafts using stone age techniques and replicating critical crossings [Ref2].
H. Erectus disappears from the fossil record around 200 Kya (thousand years ago) to be replaced by Neanderthals and then Homo Sapiens. These new species have the capacity for language and abstract thought, which in turn allows collaboration and accumulation of knowledge. Drawings, figurines and sophisticated tools that are found with their remains are proof of this evolution. The last migration out of Africa by Homo Sapiens is thought to have occurred around 60 kya, reaching Europe and Australia around 40 kya and America around 20 Kya [ Ref. ].
Homo Sapiens undoubtedly improved upon the crude rafts of Homo Erectus. On this page, we consider boats which existed before metal tools were developped and cities arose. More specifically, before wood planks allowed the construction of large ships for war and commerce around 3,000BCE.
Evidence of the nature of these early boats comes from unearthed remains, petroglyphs and other drawings - starting around 10,000 BCE (12 Kya). To this we can add boats that are in use today but could have been constructed with stone-age tools. Boats types fall into several categories depending on the materials and tools used in their construction:
- Rafts using bamboo, logs or reeds
- Dug-out canoes
- Leather boats
Prehistoric Rafts
Anything that floats can be lashed together to make a raft and serve as a boat. Only primitive cutting tools are required. Bamboo, wood logs and reeds have all been used as raw materials, tied together with vines or palm fibers. Early rafts served as fishing platforms, allowed transportation across bodies of water and even formed floating islands for villages.Raft propulsion is achieved by pushing with poles, pulling with ropes or paddling. When floating down rivers, the current does all the work. Later, sails will be added to reduce effort going downwind; but rafts have no keel or shape to keep them moving in a straight line, so steering is always difficult.
Nothing remains of these early boats - which have long since rotted away - but watercraft still in use today in remote areas provide examples of what early boats must have looked like.
| Below, click on images to enlarge! Use the arrows to move to new images. |
Bamboo Rafts
Bamboo rafts, little changed from the Homo Erectus model, are still in wide use in Asia. But now, synthetic ropes are used and the ends are often curled up by steam. The rafts are used for fishing, ferrying and, more recently, "Ecotourism". Typical rafts with curved ends |  Cormorant Fishing (China) |
 Ferry in Kerala |  Ecotourism in Jamaica |
Image Credits
Reed Boats
Reed boats are made by assembling bundles of reeds (or other thin branches), into pointy kayak-like shapes. They were used in areas where wood was scarce, like Egypt and Iraq, before efficient wood-working tools were developped. Petroglyphs from the Mesolithic period (Azerbaijan, 12,000 - 7,000 BCE) show large reed boats and remains of a 7000 year old reed boat were found in Kuwait.Nowadays, the most primitive examples are the one-man boats made from banana stalks used on Lake Baringo. The most complex are found on Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru and Bolivia. Here large boats made up of millions of Totora reeds can support as many as 60 people. Reed boats are still used in Peru and Ethiopia.
Sources
Dugout Canoes
Dugout canoes require more advanced tools, like axes, adzes and chisels, initially made from flint then metal. Often fire is used to help hollow out the core. Outriggers help with stability and later sails will be added.| Remember... Click on images to ZOOM! ; arrows to change; ESC to quit ! |
Sources
- A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1585)...makinge their boates
- Art and Ecology of Canoes
Coracles and Kayaks
The next innovation in watercraft was putting a waterproof skin over a rigid frame. This made for a lighter boat, portable even!Coracles use wicker baskets for the frame. European coracles have leather as a skin. In the Middle East and Asia, the waterproofing is achieved with cloth and pitch; for example in the Bible, Moses is sent off in a small basket of bulrushes coated in pitch.
 Indian Coracle |  Irish Curragh |
The Kayak is a traditional boat made by stretching seal skins over a framework of light driftwood or whalebone and then coating it with whale fat. They were developped by the indigenous Aleut and Inuit in subarctic regions of the world. Typically, the kayak is covered and includes a spray skirt to insulate the the rider from the cold and prevent the boat from being swamped by waves. The northern peoples also built Umiaks: larger open seal-skin boats used to move people and possessions to seasonal hunting grounds. [ Wikipedia ]
 Algonquin Birchbark Canoe (R. Griffing) |  Seal Skin Kayak |
Recreating Historic Sea Crossings
In 1947, the Norwegian ethnographer, Thor Heyerdahl, started a trend by sailing the Kon-Tiki, a balsa-log raft, from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures. Since that time, many other expeditions have attempted ocean crossings using primitive techniques. [Wikipedia]The Kon-Tiki Expedition (1947)
Established theory holds that Polynesia was colonised via Asia some 5,500 years ago. Based on similarities between statues on Easter Island and others in Bolivia, Heyerdahl believed that there had been contact from South America. To support that claim, he sailed from Peru with five other adventurers on a raft built in native style from balsa wood, bamboo, and hemp. After 101 days and 4,300 nautical miles on the open sea they arrived in the Tuamota Islands. [Wikipedia] Kon-Tiki Expedition (1947) |  Kon-Tiki, Balsa Logs and Sail |
RA-II : Crossing the Atlantic on a Reed Boat (1970)
In 1970, Heyerdahl was at it again. Proving that a reed boat of Egyptian design could reach South America. Could Aztec pyramids have been influenced by Egyptians ? RA-II (1970) |  Ra II - Reed Boat |
The Brendan Voyage (Severin, 1976)
This expedition sought to replicate a much later exploit: Saint Brendan's (c. 489-583) seven-year voyage across the Atlantic in a leather boat to a new land and his return.The Brendan, a 36-foot, two masted boat was built in traditional fashion of Irish ash and oak, hand-lashed together with nearly two miles (3 km) of leather thong, wrapped with 49 tanned ox hides, and sealed with wool grease. Between May 1976 and June 1977, Tim Severin and his crew sailed the Brendan 4,500 miles (7,200 km) from Ireland to Peckford Island, Newfoundland, stopping at the Hebrides and Iceland en route. [Wikipedia]
 Route of the Brendan |  The Brendan Leather Boat |
The First Mariners Projects (1998-2008)
The First Mariners Projects showed how Homo Erectus could have reached Flores in the Indonesian Archipelago 800,000 years ago. They also demonstrated how the aborigenes could have sailed to Australia 50,000 years ago. Human migation out of Africa |  Flores to Timor on Hominid Raft |
The Next Step: Planks
The next quantum leap in boat design would occur with the Metal Age around 3000 BCE. Metal tools allow the transformation of trees into planks making possible the construction of larger ships for war and commerce by the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Greeks.| Note: The content of this page is not original. It is an edited digest of the best that I could find on the Internet as I researched various topics over the years and looked at hundreds of sites. As a result, I have lost track of where I found what.If I have used some images that you own without sufficient credit, contact me and I will either remove them or add a reference that you are happy with. vaucher@iro.umontreal.ca |
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