One of the recent images of a log boat almost 3m long and about 60 cms wide.
There has been more recent coverage of the discoveries of log boats in the mudbanks of the River Boyne near Drogheda. Of course, Newgrange is not far away -- so the temptation is to say that the log boats are somehow connected, and that they must be Neolithic in age. Maybe they were used for the transport of stones?
https://mythicalireland.com/MI/blog/news/spotted-by-drone-an-ancient-logboat-in-the-river-boyne-at-drogheda/https://mythicalireland.com/MI/blog/news/the-logboats-of-the-river-boyne-in-drogheda-an-expert-assessment/
However, expert opinion seems to be that of the 20 log boats found thus far, the majority are likely to be of medieval age, probably occupied by a single paddler for crossing the river or fishing. Work is ongoing, and it will be interesting to see whether any of them can actually be dated to the Neolithic or Bronze Age.
Hollowed out logs always strike me as bronze age or iron age, given the difficulty of cutting the shape with stone tools.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Chris. And yet people still persist in arguing that the sturdy Neolithic folk could have made log canoes or even rafts capable of carrying 4-tonne bluestones from here to there. When you think about it, rafts must have been technoligically far more advanced than log canoes, and even more difficult to make prior to the advent of metal tools.
ReplyDeleteApparently yet another log boat was found by drone yesterday (Sunday)
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