germanicseidr: Canoe of Pesse The Netherlands always had a special relationship with water. We can&r

germanicseidr:

Canoe of Pesse

The Netherlands always had a special relationship with water. We can’t deny or ignore it, water is everywhere. From the sea that surrounds us and the rivers bringing water from the mountains far away. Throughout the centuries, people in the Netherlands have fought against this water and lived with it, even Tacitus praised the Dutch Germanic tribes for their ability to cross waters. It is no surprise that the world’s oldest boat comes from the Netherlands.

The canoe of Pesse was found by Hendrik Wanders in 1955 in the Dutch village of Pesse. The wood of the canoe has been dated to around 8200BC. This means that it is the oldest boat in the entire world.

The boat was made from a pine tree and hollowed out with flint and/or antler tools. The moor, in which this 2,98 meters long canoe was found, helped to conserve this wood for over 10,000 years. Now there were doubts if this object was really a functioning canoe, it might have been a trough. To put an end to these doubts, a replica was made back in 2001 and it functioned perfectly well as a canoe.

Canoes continued to be used by the ancient people of the Netherlands to navigate the countless bogs, rivers and small lakes. These little boats were used to hunt for fish, transport goods for trade and of course transportation. It is thought that every family who lived near water would probably have owned a canoe, so who knows how many more canoes still lie buried beneath our feet here.

The Frisii who later inhabited modern day Northern Netherlands, also used canoes for transportion, trade and the hunt. One Frisii canoe found in Uitgeest was 9 meters long and made from oak wood, it shows signs of repair so it was likely often used. In fact travelling between villages by boat was still the main form of transportation here in West-Frisia until after ww2.

Here are photos of:
Canoe of Pesse, original and replica
Several canoes photographed by me dated around 3300BC
A Frisii canoe found in Uitgeest
Making of an old Germanic canoe (photo by hunebednieuwscafe)