Plank-built in the Bronze Age
In 1972 Paul Johnstone initiated a project to build and sail a hide-covered boat which would embody the theories of those Norwegian scholars—in particular Professor Sverre Marstrander—who have classified the boats of the Scandinavian Bronze Age with the Eskimo umiak and the Irish curragh. Thanks to...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1980
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00043118 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00043118 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0003598x00043118 2024-03-03T08:44:07+00:00 Plank-built in the Bronze Age Hale, J. R. 1980 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00043118 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00043118 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) Antiquity volume 54, issue 211, page 118-127 ISSN 0003-598X 1745-1744 General Arts and Humanities Archeology journal-article 1980 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00043118 2024-02-08T08:32:53Z In 1972 Paul Johnstone initiated a project to build and sail a hide-covered boat which would embody the theories of those Norwegian scholars—in particular Professor Sverre Marstrander—who have classified the boats of the Scandinavian Bronze Age with the Eskimo umiak and the Irish curragh. Thanks to the publicity given the experimental model by the BBC ‘Chronicle’ series and the enthusiastic advocacy of Bregger, Marstrander and Johnstone himself (‘Bronze age sea trial’, Antiquity , XLVI, 1972), the skin-boat theory has become almost an orthodoxy in Britain and Scandinavia. In fact, however, the reconstructed boat itself clearly demonstrated the awkwardness of translating into the medium of a hidecovered frame the boat designs of the bronze age rock art, which include several features utterly irreconcilable with the requirements and norms of skin-boat construction. For no type of boat before the age of photography has such a vast corpus of evidence been preserved as for the vessel that served the fishermen, traders and raiding parties of Scandinavia between 1200 and 600 BC (that is, the Bronze Age periods 111, IV and V). The boat is a favoured motif in thousands of rock carvings in southern Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic islands, and on at least 200 late bronze age razors from Denmark and North Germany. Article in Journal/Newspaper eskimo* Cambridge University Press Norway Antiquity 54 211 118 127 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
General Arts and Humanities Archeology |
spellingShingle |
General Arts and Humanities Archeology Hale, J. R. Plank-built in the Bronze Age |
topic_facet |
General Arts and Humanities Archeology |
description |
In 1972 Paul Johnstone initiated a project to build and sail a hide-covered boat which would embody the theories of those Norwegian scholars—in particular Professor Sverre Marstrander—who have classified the boats of the Scandinavian Bronze Age with the Eskimo umiak and the Irish curragh. Thanks to the publicity given the experimental model by the BBC ‘Chronicle’ series and the enthusiastic advocacy of Bregger, Marstrander and Johnstone himself (‘Bronze age sea trial’, Antiquity , XLVI, 1972), the skin-boat theory has become almost an orthodoxy in Britain and Scandinavia. In fact, however, the reconstructed boat itself clearly demonstrated the awkwardness of translating into the medium of a hidecovered frame the boat designs of the bronze age rock art, which include several features utterly irreconcilable with the requirements and norms of skin-boat construction. For no type of boat before the age of photography has such a vast corpus of evidence been preserved as for the vessel that served the fishermen, traders and raiding parties of Scandinavia between 1200 and 600 BC (that is, the Bronze Age periods 111, IV and V). The boat is a favoured motif in thousands of rock carvings in southern Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic islands, and on at least 200 late bronze age razors from Denmark and North Germany. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hale, J. R. |
author_facet |
Hale, J. R. |
author_sort |
Hale, J. R. |
title |
Plank-built in the Bronze Age |
title_short |
Plank-built in the Bronze Age |
title_full |
Plank-built in the Bronze Age |
title_fullStr |
Plank-built in the Bronze Age |
title_full_unstemmed |
Plank-built in the Bronze Age |
title_sort |
plank-built in the bronze age |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
1980 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00043118 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00043118 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
eskimo* |
genre_facet |
eskimo* |
op_source |
Antiquity volume 54, issue 211, page 118-127 ISSN 0003-598X 1745-1744 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00043118 |
container_title |
Antiquity |
container_volume |
54 |
container_issue |
211 |
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118 |
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127 |
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1792499578843430912 |