Re: Kensington runestone in the Scandinavian press

cgjt wrote: 
"Tom McDonald" <tmcdonald2672@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i meddelandet
news:0jNqe.1216$eL5.196@xxxxxxxxxxx


<snip>

In addition, harvesting the bark is not something that can be
done easily (as would be necessary, one might imagine, for
beginners such as the Norse)



Beginners ?? I dont understand. A pack of fat bishops or
spoiled tax collectors , OK, but what prevent presence
of a carpenter that know how to build a small boat
or experienced sailors that know how to swing an axe?
Bark was used in Scandinavia on many places for
various pupouses during a wide time span.


	Was bark commonly used for canoes or other small boats?

If not, then these guys might or might not have been neophytes in removing bark; but they would certainly have been beginners at bark canoe building. It is a very skilled craft filled with not-immediately-obvious pitfalls and specialized techniques.


at just any time of year. In the
cold weather, it breaks easily; in summer, it holds very tightly
to the wood and tends to tear when trying to work the wooden spud
under it to 'skin' it. Only in the spring, when the sap is
running, is it relatively easy to remove the bark.

Here is a link to studies of northern hemisphere climate studies
for the last 1000 years, including a graph showing temperatures
adduced by various studies. Older studies are in blue; newer
studies are in red. Studies in the last ca. century and a half
are in black:

http://tinyurl.com/cgzvn

From the graph, it appears that the 1906 study of northern 
limits of forest trees is likely to show trees somewhat north of
their 14th century limits. IOW, using the 1906 map to estimate
the kinds of trees available to notional Norse small boat makers
is being very, very generous.



There is that possibility that they had small boats onboard a
a few seagoing vessles. Or that they got some canoes from
friendly natives.

Either seems possible. What do you make of Inger's assertion that remains of a klinker-built of pre-Columbian vintage was found in Canada? Do you have the references that she is not giving?


--
Tom McDonald
http://ahwhatdoiknow.blogspot.com/
.

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