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Early canoe development in Finland and among Finnic folks in North East Europe
An outline and summary
Written by Mr. Harri Luukkanen, Eco-Intelli Ld
Roots from the pre-log canoe period: rafts
The first mean of water transport in Finland and everywhere in world was a raft, or a float, made of local floating materials. In Finland this material was wood and the tree probably naturally dried pine called ‘kelo’, which you can find plenty in ancient grown forests. Three, four or five logs banded together becomes still today a raft for temporary water crossing in ‘erämaa’, Finnish wild mark outside roads and boats.
Later a simply ‘kopukka’ makeshift raft turned to a regular ferry to cross-rivers and straits when main roads where build. Much more lately a raft became an inflatable 'rubber-boat' for pilots, commandos or large ocean steamers. And finally a raft was developed towards a Zodiac type rubber-boat for adventure sport. In this sense, a raft is the longest serving vehicle for water transport while its life span in the service of man cover maybe 100 000 years.
Large rafts where later used in thousands in Finland for many serious jobs. Among them where log-floating rafts in spring time, rafts transporting heavy tar barrels or people down the river, and they where used for mining or fishing platforms. Besides hard work even some ancient canoe sport has grown from rafts.
Fishing platforms. In pre-historical times a log raft was used for many kind of fishing. The oldest fishing net so far found, some 10 400 years old, has been found in Antrea, the River of Vuoksi, where Finnic people traditionally lived. It very likely that the fisherman of Vuoksi River used a log raft to get to the fishing ground, where the net and its floats and weights where found.i
Besides traditional fishing, small log rafts where used in Finland to catch pearly Sweetwater mussels called ‘raakku’ since 1500’s. For fishing a special purpose ‘raakku-lautta’ was build, which had a look-out hole in the bottom, and the fisherman picked the mussels from shallow river beds with a long lever or spear called ‘simpsa’. Due to extensive mussel fishing pearly mussels are rare to day in Finland, and only few populations are known – compared to the old times when there where hundreds of rivers full of mussels.ii The roots of Finnish mussel picking are probable older than we know today, since the same ‘simpsa’ spear or harpoon has been also in use in East-Siberia on Sakhalin Island and lower reaches of Amur River by Nivkh people.iii It is possible that the technology and skill in mussels fishing was shared among the people of the north, and transferred by the Finnic folks paddling east and west on the boreal waterway, the along the ‘expanded aspen dug-out canoe belt’.
Tar rafts for river transport. Tar was in 300 years, from early 1600’s to end of 1800’s, the most important export product in Finland, and tar was burn in ‘tervahauta’ or ‘miilu’ in eastern border areas where was found enough surplus hardwood. Temporary rafts where used to transport tar barrels from the far forests to the seaports along rivers in Kainuu NE Finland, due to the local shortage of special boats for tar transport (‘tervavene’ = tar boat). The goal for most rafts was Oulu, a tar centre of the north, where all ‘tervavene’ boats and rafts where also heading. For example at Iijoki river, running towards, there where 200 years back over 1 000 rafts where build yearly for transport duty, steered by local official river-guides familiar to the rapids.iv The long narrow boats could take 12 to 30 standard barrels – each weighting 160 kg - the rafts maybe not more than 10. To steer the rafts in rapids, the rafts had a steering oar in both ends.
Iron ore mining platforms. According to Mr. E Härö, ancient Finnish folk poetry describes iron as "the youngest brother" of water, an indication of the age-old roots of iron metallurgy. Archaeological finds show that the Middle Iron Age, c. A.D. 400-800, was already smelting iron from bog and lake-bottom ores. The prehistoric tradition of iron making continued almost unchanged in vernacular, or peasant, metallurgy, which was still practiced in the outlying regions of East Finland in the late nineteenth century. Although comprehensive studies of prehistoric and vernacular iron metallurgy have yet to appear, the extent of these practices is indicated by numerous discoveries of ancient iron making sites. The importance of iron metallurgy is also evinced by folk poetry.v
One-log riding sport. Hard working in manly mobile teams combined for temporary duty, people driven from all ages and all country side professions combined to log floating, created unique national performance sport called ‘tukilla lasku’, one-log riding. The origin of one-log riding was maybe the need to cross a river riding on a log and steering with iron-ended pole called ‘keksi’. Later this show of mans skill and courage on a ‘stand-on-top canoe’ became performance sport for most able men who ride on one log in rapids. One-log riding ‘tukilla lasku’ has today become in Finland competition sport and is arranged during some summer festivals.
Inflatable. If you put two logs together, what will be the result? A small raft? At the end a raft meet the needs of extreme sport, and inflatable rafts – developed originally for pilots as life saving rafts – where used. Soon special commando rafts where developed, and now we can find standard rafts for wild water paddling. While rafting with a log-raft or even with a single log was popular among the people in wild mark and water-born professions, there is no wonder that this long tradition continues and finds new forms using decked or open canoes and inflatable.
Skin canoes
The first streamlined canoes in northern Europe some 10-8 000 year back, after the Ice Age, may have been open skin boats, build around a wooden frame, before the woodworking skill and tools where developed. No canoes are left; only some fragments and rock paintings give us glue how they looked like, used by Finnic folks, and other people of the north.
It looks very likely that in the Eastern part of Baltic Sea Stone Age people used skin boats - which looked like Eskimo Baidarka's, the open canoes for women folk – on the seashore. On the small inland lakes and rivers the dug-out canoes where enough. While in Estonia where no big inland waterways – like there was in Finland – the variation and development of lake & river canoes and boats was limited.vi Similar skin canoes have been in use by Finnic folks in Siberia still some 100 years back; some folks may use them still today.vii
Same canoe evolutions seem have taken place in Scandinavia too, says John McClean, who have studied Fosna skin boats emerging in Norway. Consideration of the early northern Arctic Art rock carving tradition compared to the southern Farmers Art tradition leads to the conclusion that there existed two different boat technology traditions in Mesolithic Scandinavia. This poster proposes to elucidate the existence of a skin boat technology along coastal Norway in the areas of Fosna colonization. Material evidence such as environmental conditions inferred from pollen studies, lithic material from the Trøndelag Fosna, rock art style differences and faunal remains are examined. This evidence creates a picture that indicates restricted ability to create log boats in the Trøndelag during the early Mesolithic.viii
The Finnic people used the oldest Stone Age paddles
Although no very old wooden canoes have been preserved and found in the Finnish soil, there are many paddles, which prove about the very old canoe traditions. In his research Professor G M Burov from Ukraine has shown that the oldest paddle-finds in NE Europe, now Russian territory, have been made on regions where Finno-Ugrian (Finnic) people have traditionally lived.
According G M Burov, a researcher writing on Mesolithic (late Stone Age) means of water transportation in northeastern Europe, the paddles found in different sites show a regular pattern. First, paddle making evolves over thousands of years due to the woodworking skill. Secondly, the stone-age paddle models show a development from a 'general purpose' paddles to 'special-purpose' fine-designed models.ix
The oldest paddles after ice age where multifunctional, since besides for paddling a canoe it could be used as a spade in winter time by the trapper-hunters, as a skiing stick and as a pole for pooling canoes up shallow rivers. Third, and most surprising, the same paddle models or forms where used in different regions far apart in NE Europe, from Finland to Denmark and Russia, during the same year thousands, reflecting the close connections & communications between people and folks and transfer of canoe technology over the Sub-Artic boreal/ forest zone.
Dug-out canoes and their followers
After mastering woodworking, dug-out canoes where made in Nordic countries during Stone Age some 8 000 years back, when the first hunter-Finns following the elks settled in Finland as a fisherman after the Ice Age. The canoes where first made from pine or oak wood logs with the help of fire, burning the wood inside the log until the wood become charred and could be digged by stone tools. It seems very likely that the first nomadic Finnic people had learned the skill to make dug-out canoes in Northern Europe plain and forest before they moved to the Baltic coast.
According to studies of Beat Arnold in Neufchatel, Switzerland, the oldest Central European one-log canoes – there are totally some 200 old canoes dated accurately to day – are dated to 7000-6700 BC. The two oldest of them, made of pine (Pinus Sylvesteris), are finds from France (Noyen-surSeine, 1984) and the Netherland (Pesse, 1955). The next oldest examples are found in Denmark, France (Paris-Bercy) and Swiss Plateu, and cover the period ranging from 4 700-3 700 BC. They show a considerable variety in form although limited by the raw material used, that is only a single log. It is therefore not yet possible to determine whether the differences in form indicate the beginning of Neolithic (agriculture) influence or if this phenomenon existed earlier than the adoption of a sedentary life style.x
Along with this diversification, there was a tendency to use soft and homogeneous woods: alder (Alnus sp.), poplar (Populus sp.) and more specifically lime (Tilia sp.). It should be noted that in continental Europe, during the Early/Middle Neolithic, oak (Quercus sp.) was used more and more frequently until it eventually became the material of choice for carving logboats as from the end of the Neolithic. On the lime skiff, as on those built of alder and poplar, the stern is closed off by a small fitted plank, fixed to the bottom in different ways, for example: in a groove (but without the resultant thickness that later be comes the rule); with tenons reserved on a small plank and mortises cut into the hull; with a number of treenails set in a zigzag fashion.
During the Iron Age (from 500 BC to 1100 AC) the innovation of log-canoes reached its peak in Europe. Writing in ‘Facing the Ocean’ professor Barry Cunliffe writes, that our knowledge of the vessels in use in the prehistorically period is still uncomfortably slight. The log boat tradition, ones established in the Mesolithic period, continued well into middle Ages. By the Iron Age, the log canoe - made by reduction or expanded - had already reached heights of technical sophistication never to be surpassed, as the Hassholme boat of about 300 BC vividly demonstrates. This massive structure made by dug-out reduction, nearly 13m long and 1.4m broad, was fashioned out of a single oak.xi.
Some other milestones in this development where just the two-hull or multi-hull log canoes which may have also been in use during the Bronze Age, according to Seth Jansson.xii On the Finnish and Nordic waters also outrigger and sailing canoes, similar to those in the Pacific where in use, especially in seal hunting at the Baltic and whaling on the open waters at the White Sea. The multi-hull and outrigger canoes opened the sailing option, but this was only a temporary relief, since the basic types of canoes did not change. The first sail may have been a small and thick birch tree called ‘purjekoivu’ in Finnish, which was even later used in rowing boats as a sail for downwind ride.
The emergence of a planked canoe
While two- and three-part dug-out canoes offered clear advantages over the one-log type – more loading capacity and stabile in use – the innovative work starting in Stone Age from one-log dug-our canoe created several new roadmaps for future in canoe development.
One roadmap outlined the development towards flat bottomed planked canoes with squared ends, where the early milestones where the two- and three-part log canoes described here. In fact, it would take surprising short time before this change would be taken and a planked boat was born. Beat Arnold has described well the construction of Gallo-Roman barges on upper Rhine and their structure & evolution may have been similar to those build on Finnic territories.
The basic principle of these boats can be found in the longitudinally split logboats. In the case of the Yverdon-2 boat, two half canoes were carved from two large trunks. They were then fixed together with a few horizontal metal rods, tangential nailing and a series of pairs of ribs. The development of this kind of boat continued with planks being added in between these two elements and, when necessary, the whole was surmounted by other planking: flush planking in the case of Bevaix and Yverdon-l, or lap-strake. The fashioning of all these elements remains the same: the carpenters begin with a voluminous mass of wood and carve or sculpt the desired shape of the finished product.xiii
According to the British Archaeology (2002), the a new set of radiocarbon dates has been established for the three Bronze Age sewn-plank boats from Ferriby on the Humber Estuary, as reported in the latest Antiquity. The oldest (about 2030-1780 BC) now stands as the oldest known plank boat in Western Europe. The others date to between about 1940-1720 BC and 1880-1680 BC.xiv
The ‘missing ring’, a lapstrake five-part boat
But the largest divide between the folks between east and west, north and south, was maybe the roadmap taken towards a planked canoe – from which a Norwegian lapstrake longboat was born - as well as the reason for this innovative work. If the Finnic people represent the NE people and their efford, the road was taken first towards the expanded aspen dug-our canoe, later then to a planked expanded dug-out canoe, and finally towards a ‘five part boat’, the missing ring between a dug-out canoe and a lapstrake rowing or sailing boat, where all parts usually sewn together with spruce roots.
But reading the studies about European canoe & boat development we can see also clear difference in the in the goals in innovation, and motivation too:
In Central Europe the goal was to build large boats for goods transport, to feed the people who lived in centres and to maximise the benefit from the few large rivers. The outcome would then be a planked barge.
On the other hand, in Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) the ultimate goal was to build and invent a large and strong seagoing craft, to overcome the sea barrier, and to travel along the coast and to the fishing grounds. On inland waters there where not much use for smaller canoes or boats, while only in Sweden was some larger rivers and lakes.
In Finland and Finnic areas between the Baltic and Urals was a great need for small canoes and boats, suited for narrow and shallow inland lakes, rivers and streams. To that end, expanded or as planked dug-our canoes where a just ideal, and light enough to be transported by land in portages passing rapids or between two lakes.
Gradually, the Nordic planked dug-out log canoe turned into a ‘five part boat’ with sewn boards, originally developed for inland waters, was the finally the iron nailed Norwegian longboat born.
How this gradual development took place in Finland? Professor Janne Vilkuna (University of Jyväskylä) presents his classification of canoe & boat development during last 10 000 years from a simple dug-out canoe towards an iron-nailed lapstrake boat. Seen from the construction techniques point of view, he presents six main steps in this long development:xv
I Simple dug-out canoe carved from one log, usually pine wood.
II Expanded dug-out canoe, made from a aspen wood log, supported with thwarts to keel the hull open, and supported with ribs
III Carved and expanded dug-out canoe, supported with ribs, where one plank is added to the gunwale, and all parts are binded together with roots
IV So called ‘five-part-boat’, where you can find a wide keel (a aspen dug-out canoe), separate naturally curved fore and aft stems, ribs and two planks on each side, sewn (binded) together with roots.
V Ribbed lapstrake boat, with straight fore and aft stems and a narrow keel, fixed to 3 to 7 planks with either a) sewn (binded) roots or b) iron nails.
In short, this was the technical route from a dug-out canoe towards a lapstrake boat.
How this all took place in NE Europe and Finland?
Looking at the canoe development stage in the older Roman Keiser Zeit, the construction and innovation some 2000 years back, Timm Weski in his ‘Zusammenfassung’ on water transport on Oder River and the Baltic point out the restricted information which we have about ancient canoes: much is not known in detail. But at that time expanded dug-out canoes where known, as well as planked dug-out canoes. At the Baltic the planked boats, both sewn and nailed planked boats, are already known, as well as the Viking style rudder-oar (Zugrudern). The use and origin of sails is not well known. The expanded canoe, and lapstrake building technology, like the overlapping sewn technique is very likely born in the North, while the sail and oars have been imported from the South, very propably from the Roman or Mediterranean fleets.xvi
Finally, we have also a ‘water flow’ model of canoe technology development, derived from the research on the Bevaix boat on the Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland. In the lecture notes we could read that ‘The Bevaix boat is representative of a number of similar small boats recovered from the Swiss lakes, the primitive end of a design pattern which becomes steadily more complex as the Rhine progresses to the sea.’xvii Interesting was here the note that technology and boatbuilding skills was better at the lower reaches of Rhine (or any great river?) near the sea than it was on upper reaches of the river. Most people travel down the river to the centres transporting goods, while only few people have a reason to visit the upper reaches, the rural areas where the goods consumed in centres originate. Down the river was floating boat builders and their skills, and other technology & tools, where demand for those material and immaterial resources was best. Consumption creates markets for goods, and those market centres upgrade to ‘centres of excellence’ of their time, in this time ‘Canoe Valley’ of the Rhine or Oder Rives (compare to ‘Silicon Valley’). Thus, those barges located in Lakes of Switzerland, where the upper Rhine starts its running to the north, and studied for example by Beat Arnold, may have represented the lower skill & technology level than barges found in the Netherlands, in the sense this ‘technology river flow’ model.
There where also famous centres in Finland and Finnic areas where the canoe building skill was developed. While the Finnic people and folks lived around the largest lakes of Europe, there where several ‘Centres of Excellence ’where the canoe creating craft concentrated. For example Lake Lanoka, the largest lake of Europe, was one such centre. When the Swedish Rus-Vikings later in 700’s AD looked for trade routes to Byzantium – the Black Sea route - and the Orient – the Caspian Sea route – along the great rivers of Russia, and founded the City of Novgorod, the Finns and their canoe building skills was part of this success story. The Finns build the river fleets for this Swedish intrusion and manned many ships, and later supplied the canoes and barges for the supply of the City of Novgorod – which was build on the soil of Finnic folks.
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