The Scottish kayaks reconsidered

• Published in: Antiquity
• Main Author: Whitaker, Ian
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1977
• Subjects: General Arts and Humanities; Archeology; Greenland; Finn; Kayak; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00100584; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00100584

In my article in 1954 I suggested that the role of the Finns in the folklore of the northern Scottish Islands might have assisted in the attribution to these visitors of the designation “Finn-men” which is found in the earliest accounts. The aim of the article was to dispose of suggestions by earlier students of the problem (e.g. MacRitchie, 1912a, 130-1) that they might be visitors from Northern Europe, and to identify them clearly as Eskimos arriving directly from Greenland. The problem that the kayak becomes waterlogged after being immersed in water for 48 hours presents difficulties to this solution which could only be overcome if one postulated Olympic standards on the part of the travellers. At the time of this study I presumed that the Scottish specimens and traditions were unique, and therefore sought an explanation which was particular to that country.