Tomol (Chumash sewn-plank canoe)
Tomol (canoa de tablones cosidos chumash)
- Date
- c. 500-1150 (muy discutido) · confidence low
- Place
- Santa Barbara Channel, California, United States
- Credited to
- Chumash people
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A canoe of redwood or pine planks lashed with fibre cords and sealed with natural asphalt, 6 to 9 m long, in which the Chumash sailed between the mainland and the Channel Islands. It is one of the few sewn-plank craft in the Americas.
The date of appearance is debated: some authors place it around AD 500 and others around AD 1150 (period of medieval droughts). Wood finds are scarce.
What it led to
- shell-bead trade and offshore fishing between islands and coast
- social complexity of the Chumash chiefdoms
- today's revival with tomol crossings to Santa Cruz Island