Dugout canoe and paddle
Canoa monóxila y remo de pala
- Date
- c. 8000 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Pesse, Drenthe, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Mesolithic hunter-fishers of northern Europe
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A 3 m pine log hollowed out with fire and an adze, the oldest preserved boat; wooden paddles from Star Carr and Duvensee show how it was propelled. River transport of people and cargo with little effort.
The Star Carr paddle (England, c. 9000 BCE) is even older, but no associated canoe survives.
What it led to
- Mobility and trade along rivers and lakes, the backbone of European circulation until the railway
- Open-water fishing and the colonisation of islands
- Carpentry specialisation with the adze and controlled fire
Built on
- Polished stone axec. 8000 BCE
- Adze
- Raft
Made possible
- Dufuna dugout canoec. 6500 BCE
- Pile dwellingc. 5700 BCE
- Reed boat sealed with bitumenc. 5300 BCE
- Sail and sailing boatc. 3500 BCE
- Skin-on-frame kayak (Inuit)c. 2000 BCE (muy aproximado)
- Outrigger canoe and crab-claw sailc. 1500 BCE
- Saladoid culture: pottery and horticulture in the Antillesc. 400 BCE
- Butuan balangay (edge-pegged plank boat)c. 320-1250
- Oar with rowlock