The 'Kilnsea-boat', and some implications from the discovery of England's oldest plank boat remains.

The 'Kilnsea-boat', and some implications from the discovery of England's oldest plank boat remains. Introduction A plank found by members of the Hull Natural History Society inSeptember 1996 on the Kilnsea beach in the East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. It is named after the historic East Riding of Yorkshire (one of three ridings alongside the North Riding and West Riding), which also constituted a ,England [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] has been identified as apiece of a prehistoric boat. It was transported to the Hull and EastRiding Museum in Hull, where analysis and dating of the plank wereundertaken within the framework of the English Heritage English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of England. It was set up under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983. commissionedHumber Wetlands Survey. Radiocarbon assay of the plank provided a datefor the boat of 1870-1670 BC, which makes this the oldest datedplank-built boat fragment from England. Currently, the plank is underconservation at the York Archaeological Wood Centre - the conservationprocess is anticipated to be completed in 1999, when it will be returnedto Hull and East Riding Museum for display. This report presents themain elements of the analysis and context of the find, and considerssome of the implications of its discovery for the debate on the functionand use of Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the plank boats. Context, description and dating of the 'Kilnsea-boat' Although the Kilnsea-boat was found lying on the beach during lowtide, it is thought that the find is associated with an estuarine es��tu��a��rine?adj.1. Of, relating to, or found in an estuary.2. Geology Formed or deposited in an estuary.Adj. 1. estuarine - of or relating to or found in estuariesestuarial ratherthan a coastal context. The severe erosion of East Yorkshire'sHolderness coastline is well documented for the past and present, andwith an average annual lateral coastal erosion of 1 to 2 m (Sheppard1912) the Holderness coast of the Bronze Age may have been as much as 3to 6 km to the east of the current coast, although alternative scenariosof coastal changes have been suggested for this area (Valentin 1971; DeBoer 1964; Berridge & Pattison 1994). A short distance from the siteof the plank, remains of an intertidal in��ter��tid��al?adj.Of or being the region between the high tide mark and the low tide mark.in woody peat are exposed during lowtides (Bisat 1952). The peat underlies a plastic clay rich in themollusc molluscmembers of the phylum Mollusca, which comprises about 50,000 species. Includes snails, slugs and the aquatic molluscs��oysters, mussels, clams, cockles, arkshells, scallop, abalone, cuttlefish, squid. Scrobicularia plana. A similar peat on the shore at KilnseaWarren, 3 km further south, appears to have been forming c. 5000 yearsBP (Gaunt & Tooley 1974), and the deposits are related to theKilnsea Fleet which lies within the estuarine catchment of the RiverHumber, rather than with coastal deposits (cf. Dinnin 1995). Althoughseverely desiccated, the plank could only have survived in a wetlandenvironment such as Kilnsea Fleet, where peat deposits are at presentalso severely desiccated. The plank itself is of oak (Quercus), and its maximum dimensionsare 1596 mm long, 350 mm wide and c. 60 mm thick (not including thecleats) [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED]. The plank was severely wornand desiccated, with none of the edges intact and toolmarks onlydistinguishable on the upper side of the plank. When the effects ofdesiccation des��ic��ca��tionn.The process of being desiccated.desic��ca are discounted, the plank is not curved in either transverseor longitudinal direction, leaving a fiat underside. Projecting from theupper side are the remains of an integral cleat, measuring 712 mm inlength, 115 mm [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] wide and a maximumheight of 55 mm, although the latter represents a broken surface. Partof the cleat was broken off, leaving a clearly distinguishable scar onthe plank surface. Two mortised holes are distinguishable within thecleat, of 45 mm and 56 mm by (at least) 31 mm respectively. The plankwas fashioned tangentially tan��gen��tial? also tan��gen��taladj.1. Of, relating to, or moving along or in the direction of a tangent.2. Merely touching or slightly connected.3. from the tree trunk, with the underside ofthe plank nearer the outside of the trunk. No evidence of stitchholes orstitches of twisted withy with��y?adj.1. Made of or as flexible as withes; tough.2. Wiry and agile.n. pl. with��ies1. A rope or band made of withes.2. a. of yew or similar material was found on theplank, which must be attributed to the eroded nature of the plank andits dislocation shortly before its discovery. There is little doubt that the plank was part of a sewn plank boat.The use of large integral cleats, carved out of the solid planks,through which transverse timbers were passed to provide stiffness to thehull, is a construction technique common to all known Bronze Age plankboats from the British Isles (cf. Wright 1990; McGrail 1997; 1998a),while this technique is unrecorded from Bronze Age wetland sites such astrackways and settlements. Furthermore, its location near an intertidalinlet supports this determination. Compared to its geographicallynearest parallel, the Bronze Age boats from North Ferriby which werefound c. 40 km upstream from Kilnsea (Wright 1990), the dimensions ofthe plank, cleat and mortised holes closely resembles Ferriby 1. If theKilnsea-boat was similar to Ferriby 1, the plank described here couldhave been part of the keel-plank, or alternatively, the outer bottomstrake. The tangentially cut plank presented an insufficient number oftree-rings for dendrochronological dating, and so two samples from theunderside of the plank were submitted for radiocarbon measurements(TABLE 1). The two determinations are statistically significantlydifferent at 95% confidence, but not at 99% (Ward & Wilson 1978).They have therefore been combined before calibration to produce acalibrated date range of 1870-1670 BC (at 95% confidence). Allcalibrated dates in TABLE 1 have been calculated using OxCal v2.18(Bronk Ramsey 1995), data from Pearson & Stuiver (1986) and themaximum intercept method of Stuiver & Reimer (1986) with rangesrounded outwards to 10 years (Meek 1986). Dated Bronze Age sewn plank boats Since the discovery of Ferriby 1 in 1937, the partial remains ofsix additional plank boats of Bronze Age date have been discovered,although the Brigg 'raft' had been initially exposed in 1888during excavation of brick clay, and was not recognized as a Bronze Ageplank boat until more recent research was undertaken (McGrail 1981). Alldated Bronze Age sewn plank boats from England are listed in TABLE 1.Dating of logboats from the British Isles in any systematic manner hasonly commenced recently, but the 25 dated logboats from the area providea date-range from c. 1400 BC to the 14th century AD (McGrail 1998). Theclaim for the Kilnsea-boat being England's oldest boat is, on thebasis of current data, justified. However, the date of a side strakefrom a sewn plank boat from Caldicot, Wales, has been determined as1880-1690 BC (at 95% confidence; TABLE 1). This appears to be broadlycontemporary with the date of the Kilnsea boat. Such an early date for aplank built boat is unsurprising. Wright (1990), for example, has longheld the view that the ancestry of the style of boat-building of Ferriby1 and 2 had to be sought in the Early rather than the Middle Bronze Age.The dating of the Kilnsea fragment supports this view. Seacraft or rivercraft of the Bronze Age? Cultural exchange between continental Europe and the British Islesis well attested for the later Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age periods,c. 2500-1500 BC, but the type of craft by which this contact wasestablished and maintained remains a subject of debate. This debate hasthus far focused mainly on technical specifications of design of BronzeAge sewn plank boats, which are generally considered the most likelycandidates for seafaring, although such functions have also beenproposed for hide or skinboats on theoretical grounds (cf. McGrail1993). The debate is predominantly based on assessments of theseaworthiness sea��wor��thy?adj. sea��wor��thi��er, sea��wor��thi��estFit to traverse the seas: a seaworthy freighter; a seaworthy crew. of boat-reconstructions (e.g. Coates in Wright 1990;McGrail 1981; 1998b). The limited remains of the Kilnsea-boat precludeits reconstruction and assessment of performance, but its location inthe outer estuary, where its role as a ferry can only be consideredimpractical, suggest that coastal and indeed seafaring functions shouldbe contemplated. In fact, the distribution of all known sewn plank boatsof Bronze Age date supports such a function (see TABLE 1). Remains ofdated plank boats have been discovered either in estuaries, such asFerriby 1 to 3 and Goldcliff, or in tidal rivers near estuaries or thecoast, including the boats from Kilnsea, Brigg, Caldicot and, mostsignificantly, Dover, but not on inland rivers. This distributionappears to be significant, especially when it is compared to thedistribution of logboats, be it mostly undated un��dat��ed?adj.1. Not marked with or showing a date: an undated letter; an undated portrait.2. , which includes typicallytidal rivers and inland waters Canals, lakes, rivers, water courses, inlets, and bays that are nearest to the shores of a nation and subject to its complete sovereignty.Inland waters, also known as internal waters, are subject to the total sovereignty of the country as much as if they were an actual part , but only rarely estuaries or coasts. Within the context of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age exchange,the assessment of seaworthiness of the reconstructed boats may well beconsidered of limited value. Studies of elite networks and long-distanceinteraction attest of the prestige attached to exchanged objects, whichin this context include beaker pottery and bronze and gold objects(Burgess 1978; cf. Bradley 1990). If the seaworthiness of Bronze Ageplank boats was genuinely or perceived as severely limited, for examplein terms of risk to the lives of the mariners, or their use as seacraftwas only possible under extremely favourable weather conditions, thiscould contribute to the prestige attached to the exchanged objects andenhance the membership of elite networks. Obviously, the use of plankboats as seacraft does not exclude their use on rivers and estuaries. Conclusion The plank with integral cleat discovered on Kilnsea beach isprobably part of the outer bottom strake or keel-plank of a built boatdated to c. 1870-1670 BC. The use of the Kilnsea-boat and other recentdiscoveries of Bronze Age plank boats from England and Wales England and Wales are both constituent countries of the United Kingdom, that together share a single legal system: English law. Legislatively, England and Wales are treated as a single unit (see State (law)) for the conflict of laws. isconsidered in the light of the location of finds. It was concluded thatplank boats were sea-going vessels capable of carrying small cargoes andreaching Continental Europe. As such, they would have enabled theexchange of prestige goods by coastal routes and with ContinentalEurope, leading to the support of elite networks. Acknowledgements. We are grateful to English Heritage for itssupport during the analysis and for the conservation of the boatfragment, to Ian Panter for much valued advice and information and toProfessor Seen McGrail and Edward Wright for comments on an earlierdraft of this paper. References BELL, M. 1993. Intertidal archaeology at Goldcliff in the Severnestuary, in Coles et el. (ed.): 9-13. BERRIDGE, N.G.& J. PATTISON. 1994. Geology of the countryaround Grimsby and Patrington. Memoir for 1:50.000 sheets 90 and 91 and81 and 82 (England and Wales). 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