Book: The Sea-craft of Prehistory

Purchased the book Sea-craft of Prehistory by Paul Johnstone. It is a
2001 reprint of a 1980 book by the author who died in 1976. This dates
the material, but, as near as I can determine, this is still the best
publication on the subject. Of particular interest to me are the two
chapters on the earliest forms of bark and skin boats.

Johnstone refuses to pick one or the other as the first form of the
true boat, as opposed to a raft or reed flotation device. He surmises
from evidence of large stores of bark rolled up in sites in Australia,
Guyana, Brazil, Rhodesia (the book is that old), and Tanzania. Not
much skill or workmanship required to take a long roll of bark and
extend it to a canoe shape with crosspieces and seal in the ends with
ties or clay. This form also occurred in eastern Siberia.

For the skin boat he uses the possible point of origin in Russia and
then describes a geographic distrubtion that includes Scandanavia and
Britain. Mesopotamia, India China and the Beringa areas. There is a
latitude line, at 45 to 50 north, that seems to limit the use of the
skin boat. Johnstone traces this to water temperature, it is
uncomfortable to have cold water in the boat and skin boats, with
their high freeboard, are very dry boats.

Johnstone makes the development of the skin boat dependent upon sewing
and needles, which, whether meant or not, makes the discovery of eyed
sewing needles, in the portion of Russia (Kostenki) where he sites the
beginnings of skin boats, significant. The Kostenki sites are near
Voronezh Russia and date from before 30,000 BC.
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