The Dugout Canoe in North
America, Part II
By John Nass, Jr.
Editor, President Mon-Yough Chapter #3
Introduction
At the Kuahuqiano site in south China, excavations of a Neolithic age,
submerged or waterlogged settlement recovered a dugout made from pine along with
three paddles. Radiocarbon dating established its age as c. 8000 cal. BP (Jiang
2004).
In Africa, the oldest preserved dugout is from Nigeria near Lake Chad.The
dugout measures 8.4 m in length and 0.5 m in width. The canoe was crafted from
Scots Pine. Multiple radiocarbon assays place the dugout between c. 8500 and
8000 BP (Garba 1996). Dugout canoes are still made and used in many countries
in Africa.
Above: the Dunfuna canoe. Dufuna-canoe-theafricanhistory-comPics Art 03-07-09.24.07.jppg. 2021
In the Americas, dugout canoes were used for maintaining communication, and the movement of people, resources, and for warfare. Pre-contact examples dating back several thousand years have been found across South America and north across the United States and Canada. Along the Pacific coast, dugouts were used from northern California to southern Alaska, as well as interior rivers that drained into the Pacific, such as the Columbia River. Depending on geography, canoes were made from Douglas fir, Pacific Red Cedar, Pine, Cypress, White Oak and other suitable trees. Dugouts recovered from lakes and bogs have been found in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Florida leads all states in the number of recovered dugout canoes, with more than 400 having been found. The oldest canoe dates to the Archaic Period, c. 5000 BC, or roughly 7000 BP.
Left: 18th century drawing of Chitimacha tribe, Louisiana, using a dugout.
Above: Example of a well preserved dugout
canoe from Arkansas, c. 800-1000 years in age (www.nationalparkstraveler.org).
To find a dugout is remarkable luck, but to find a cluster of canoes is truly astonishing. Up to11 canoes have been found by divers in Lake Mendota, Madison, Wisconsin, since 2021). (www.wisconsinhistory.org). The oldest has been determined to be approximately 4,500 years old, making it the oldest found in the Great Lakes Region. The canoe was made from an elm tree. The most recent canoe has been dated to c. AD 800. On the floor of the 15-foot canoe were several net sinkers.
Not all of the canoes were recovered from the lake bottom. Those that were removed are being treated and preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, an expensive and time consuming process.
Left: 3,000 year-old canoe in its original resting place at the bottom of Lake Mendota. Photo credit: Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison.
Dr. Sissel Schroeder, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison is one of the researchers analyzing the canoes. A link to a recent presentation is provided below:
The functionality of dugouts is evident by their global distribution. Using early drawing made by explorers along the east coast (see image below), together with extensive studies of archaeological recovered and ethnohistoric examples of Native American canoes, archaeologists, historical reenactors, and others have built examples of dugouts. A google search of the topic would locate a host of videos.
https://s-video.innovid.com/DCO/1495374/1748943649237/media/v_40396136.kbps800.mp4
References
Garba, Abubakar
1996 "The architecture
and chemistry of a dug-out: the Dufuna Canoe in 1996 ethno-archaeological perspective". Berichte des
Sonderforschungsbereichs. 268 (8): 193. S2CID 207909025.
Jiang, Leping and Li Liu
2005 The discovery of an
8000-year-old dugout canoe at Kuahuqiao in the Lower Yangzi River, China. Antiquity AQY volume 79 issue 305 Cover and
Front matter. Antiquity. 2005;79(305):f1-f6. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0050012X
Zeist, W. van,
1957:
The Mesolithic boat of Pesse, Nieuwe Drentse People's Almanac 75, 4-11.
Las, Sarah, Florida Has More Archaeological Canoes than Anywhere Else in the World. Atlas Obscura, October 5, 2017.
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