This is the web site for building, learning and playing with the history of Boats and Ships from about BC to 1089AD. 

BRONZE AGE SEWN PLANK BOAT TO BE BUILT IN CORNWALL

Under the aegis of the University of Exeter a full-size boat will be constructed starting in April 1212.

Participants will learn how to split out and dress planks from oak trunks. They will have to prepare and sew with natural fibres, probably Yew withies and to caulk with moss. All will be visible in the open workshop of the Maritime Museum in Cornwall.

The boat is to be launched and its sea-worthiness qualities tested along with how it is to steer and paddle.

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Archaeologists-ready-Bronze-Age-boat-build/story-14421751-detail/story.html

CHANGES TO MY OWN BRONZE AGE BOAT PLANS

I have been forced by circumstances to modify my own plans and will follow this new train of thought for a Bronze Age Boat for now while shelving my Roos Carr project.

We would like in our Bronze Age Living History reconstructions a quickly built boat to sell local produce to visiting trading ships or drop off a pilot or to carry messages but we want to travel faster in it than is possible in a coracle.

I will be making a simple sewn plank pirogue.
Sewn boats do not require large trunks. You can take, if necessary, just one plank from the centre of the trunk, You don't have to be able to sit in the trunk as in a dugout as you can combine more than one plank. Dugouts were common in the BA as we know but if you ain't got the trees which were likely to be scarce in Cornwall then you are stuck unless you build your boat from a kit of planks. So we have the means to knock up a utility boat of some sort both then and now. Different fastenings but much the same way a plywood pirogue was built by me in about three days.

Fortunately the type of authentic stitching and materials can still used so that building the new boat remains the learning experience it always has been.

I wouldn't be surprised if BA boat yards didn't knock out a few of this sort between large craft as they still make small dinghies sometimes in modern boatyards between orders for larger vessels.

LOGBOAT ENTHUSIASTS: Contact me if you have a question about logboats, monoxylon or pirogue and I will try to help with my extensive library.

  Replica boat...

Replica Dark Age Boat ideas.

If you would like to see a film of a pirogue being cut from a log in recent times.

Go here for a beautiful film of a logboat being created

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,188

This film was dedicated to Robert Flaherty and here are two youtube extracts showing his interest in boat people of Ireland and the Inuit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncsyA4JfCn8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLERFRQl5EY&feature=related

 Living History Paddling into the Past

The Pictae - a re-enactment group based on authentic replica boats.

AGE of BRONZE (scroll on down from The Pictae)

An existing group of experienced Living History people.

JOIN US- info@dark-age-boats.co.uk

Anybody interested in early history especially experimental archaeology and living history?

see the Natural Bushcraft site for briefings as to how to live in the Mesolithic

http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/

Coracle Society for early boating (and swims!)

http://www.coraclesociety.org.uk/

PAAS The Primitive Archery and Atlatl Society, so you can hunt way back then

http://www.spearthroweruk.net/

Bronze Age discussion group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ageofbronze/

AND a Welsh group who have built their first boat

https://sites.google.com/site/ancientboatprojects/home

  Iron and Bronze Age Boats...

The Hjortspring Boat and an achievable scale replica

Bronze Age Kayak

Bronze Age Boat carving

  Languages...

The Languages used on sea and land around Britain in the Dark Ages . We hope to research this soon. In the meantime have a look at the publications of Joseph Biddulph http://www.cs.vu.nl/~dick/biddulph/ which include discussion of Brythonic, Frisian and Germanic languages.

 If these present a challenge remember that Latin was spoken as well and you could probably get by in those days with a basic knowledge

  Discussion Groups...

Have a look at our discussion groups:

• Cerdingas
• Celtic Seas