Lurgan Canoe
Lurgan Canoe , which is over 4,000 years old , was discovered in 1901 by Patrick Coen in a swamp that was once a shallow lake in County Galway , Ireland . It was cut from an oak trunk and is over 14.0 m long and 1.0 m wide. The boat is the largest artifact in the National Museum of Ireland.
To transform a solid oak into this canoe , with stone axes and fire, the Bronze Age people must have invested a lot of time and effort. Inside the boat they left a series of raised "ribs" to divide it into sections and stabilize it. This has led archaeologists to suggest that the canoe may have been connected to a second to form a catamaran , or that an outrigger was attached to the boat. This would give the canoe greater stability and allow it to travel over large areas of open water or the ocean.
The Lurgan Canoe is not unique. Two similar dugouts were discovered north of Connacht . Part of a boat was discovered in Carrowneden, County Mayo , and an entire canoe was discovered in Annaghkeen, County Galway. Annagheen's oak canoe is 12 meters long, while the Carrowneden canoe can be reconstructed to a similar size.
The original function of the large canoes is uncertain. It seems unlikely that they were used for fishing . The size of the dugout canoes suggests that they were built for another purpose under the guidance of experienced boat builders.
See also
literature
- ME Robinson, DW Shimwell, G. Cribbin: Re-assessing the logboat from Lurgan Townland, Co. Galway, Ireland. In: Antiquity , Volume 73, No. 282, 1999, pp. 903-908.
- JN Lanting, Anna L. Brindley: Irish Logboats and their European Context. In: Journal of Irish Archeology , Volume 7, 1996, pp. 85-95.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cribbin et al. 1999