

National Museum of Australia History of Ships

Prehistoric Craft

Jean Vaucher (April 2014)

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 discovered boat in the world is the 3 meter longconstructed 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. Others argue that hide boats (kayaks) were used in Northern Europe as early as 9,500 BCE.

However, the very 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

In time, Erectus spread out of Africa into Asia, but as he did not wear clothes, he stayed close to the equator. Erectus reached the Indonesian archipelago as early as 800,000 years ago. We know this because stone tools dated to that period and typical of Erectus have been found on the Island of Flores - between Bali and Timor. Although Erectus could have reached Bali by trekking over land bridges; migration beyond Bali to Flores required a minimum of 10 important sea crossings of up to 100 km and could not have occured by accident [Ref1]. The conclusion is that Homo Erectus built seaworthy craft 600,000 years before the first Homo Sapiens appeared on earth.

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].





Torres Strait islanders on a bamboo raft, 1906

Encyclopedia of New Zeland



H. Erectus is succeeded by more intelligent species who arise in Africa. First, the Neanderthals who appear around 300 Kya and then Homo Sapiens (~ 200 Kya). Both develop clothes, and migrate north into Asia and Europe via the Sinai land bridge. The last migration out of Africa is thought to have occurred around 60 kya, reaching Europe and Australia around 40 Kya and America around 20 Kya [ Ref. ].

Physically, early Homo Sapiens was identical to modern man; but for 150_000 years, his mental abilities were limited - on a par to those of Neanderthals. He used the same stone tools; had no jewelry and hunting was limited to small animals.

But around 50 Kya, there is evidence of a HUGE change: artefacts found around burial sites become much more sophisticated. They include: art (jewelry and drawings), advanced tools (needles and nets) and long-distance weapons (bows and arrows). This progress is attributed to mutations which allowed the use of language and abstract thought. Homo Sapiens truly became Modern Man.

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:

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.



Primitive Log Raft

First Mariners Project

Flores to Timor on Hominid Raft In some areas, the primitive log raft evolved into more elaborate versions with a tapered shape and an odd number of curved logs often held together with sharpened hardwood pins. Examples below are from India (around Chennai) and medieval Japan.

Tamil Boat, Kattumaram (India) Kon-Tiki Raft

Thor Heyerdahl (1947) In 1947, a Norwegian expedition sailed 4300 miles accross the Pacific on a Balsa log raft built with primitive materials and techniques, showing that ancient craft were capable of long distance ocean crossings. More information below...

Kon-Tiki, Balsa Logs and Sail

Bamboo Rafts

Bamboo rafts, little changed from themodel, 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, "".



Typical rafts with curved ends

Cormorant Fishing (China)

Ferry in Kerala

Ecotourism in Jamaica

Reed Boats

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.



Petroglyph near Caspian Sea

Azerbaijan ( ~ 10,000 BCE)

Predynastic Pretroglyphs

Egypt (6000 - 3000 BCE)

Banana Stalk Boat

Lake Baringo (Kenya)

Ethiopian Papyrus Reed Boat (Ethiopia)

Single Person Boat (Lake Titicaca)

Caballito de Totora

Huanchaco Beach, Peru

Elaborate Reed Boat

Lake Titicaca

RA-II, Crossing the Atlantic on a Reed Boat

Buoyed Rafts

Treated in seperate (new) section: LINK Wikipedia Dugout Canoes Dugout canoes require more advanced tools, like axes, adzes and chisels, initially made from flint then metal. Fire can also serve to hollow out the core. Suitable tools appear around 12,000 years ago (Mesolithic period) and one can assume that canoes of some form would be developped shortly therafter; but more precise chronology must rely on the discovery of datable artefacts. The oldest boat found so far is the 3 meter wood canoe shown below, constructed around 8,000 BCE [ ];

Dugout canoes in various forms were developped all over the world wherever large trees grew. Later designs added outriggers to help with stability and eventually sails.

Remember... Click on images to ZOOM! ; arrows to change; ESC to quit !



10 foot Pesse Canoe ( ~8,000 BCE )

The oldest boat found

Using Fire to make Canoe

Virginia (1585)

Admiralty Island Outrigger

Dugouts on Amazon

Fiji Outrigger with Sail (19th C.)

Haida Canoe (West Coast, Canada)

A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1585)... makinge their boates

Art and Ecology of Canoes

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

In North America, Indians developped the birchbark canoe: a frame of wooden ribs covered with sewn patches of bark. Birchbark was the perfect choice, not only was it lightweight and smooth, but it was also waterproof and resilient. The joints of the canoes were bound together by the root of the white pine and then made waterproof by applying hot pine or spruce resin. [ Ref. ]

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 ]



Eskimaux killing deer on a lake (1824)

Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Museum ( CLICK for larger view! )

The Kon-Tiki Expedition (1947)



Kon-Tiki Expedition (1947)

Kon-Tiki, Balsa Logs and Sail

RA-II : Crossing the Atlantic on a Reed Boat (1970)



RA-II (1970)

Ra II - Reed Boat

The Brendan Voyage (Severin, 1976)

Thor Heyerdahl Recreating Historic Sea Crossings In 1947, the Norwegian ethnographer, , 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 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 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 ?This expedition sought to replicate a much later exploit:Brendan's (c. 489-583) seven-year voyage across the Atlantic in ato 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

Experiments in the Mediterranean

Recent digs have shown that most islands in the Mediterranean were visited or settled by Stone Age people - way before the classic civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece. On Cyprus, agricultural settlements dating to 9,000BC were found and, the first settlements on Crete (~ 7,000BC) precede the Minoan civilization by more than four millennia.

Island settlement implies some navigation legs over 100km in very primitive craft. There is also evidence of repeated trade (in obsidian) between some islands and the mainland. In recent years, experimental archeologists have repeated these voyages in bith reed craft and dugout canoes.





Reed "Papyrella" (Tzalas 1988) [Ref]

Dugout Canoe "Monoxylon"

Tichy, 1995 & 1998 [Ref]

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 (600km) from Timor 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 thearound 3000 BCE. Metal tools allow the transformation of trees intomaking possible the construction of larger ships for war and commerce by the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Greeks.