In the midst of all the nastiness, trouble and violence in the world, I was intrigued by a BBC report about two "experimental archaeologists" who paddled down the Thames River in England in leather canoes, replicas of Stone Age watercraft.
Nine days into their quest to paddle the full length of the River Thames, Theresa Emmerich Kamper and Sarah Day watched as a slate grey stormfront swallowed the blue sky. The onrush of rain was moving so fast there was no time to paddle ashore and unload their gear. Their buckskin dresses weren't waterproof. And if their reindeer fur bedding got soaked, it would never dry. So, they draped their leather tent over themselves and huddled inside their cowhide canoe as they were hammered with hail, singing silly songs and bailing water with a wooden cup.
A man moored nearby poked his head out of his houseboat. "If you're gonna do it like the Flintstones," he called out, "you're gonna get wet!"
Over the howling wind, they shouted, "It's for science!"
Facing the elements while surrounding themselves with leather is, in fact, an important part of Day and Emmerich Kamper's work. As experimental archaeologists, they research and recreate ancient technologies to gain insight into how our ancestors lived. They teach ancestral skills, such making clothing, pouches, preserved meat and bone tools from animals.
. . .
If they took animal skin boats on a multi-day journey, they reasoned, they could learn more about how Paleolithic peoples might have traded along rivers and even migrated to islands around Scotland and the Mediterranean.
The idea was born: they would paddle 255km [about 158 miles] of the Thames with handcrafted canoes, equipment and food that mimicked – as closely as they could practically and legally manage it – those made by Stone Age peoples.
There's more at the link, describing their journey and what they learned from their experiences. I enjoyed it as a total change of pace from the frenetic reality around us. Recommended reading.
Peter
9 comments:
They should have read Tim Severin voyage in the Saint Brendan, so they would have more waterproof garments.
Very interesting, would love to be able to take these ladies out for a few pints and grub. I bet the rest of the story would be awesome.
I "looked like a yeti" is priceless.
Old skillsets relearned. I hope and pray we don't get that far back into survival mode from crazies.
One advantage to being a leather crafter, I don't have far to go, to leave the crazy....
"Experimental archaeologist" sounds like a job where you can go overboard on your Society for Creative Anachronism tendencies and get paid for it.
The guys that worked to recreate Roman cement did great work that may be useful for future construction.
Sounds like they found yet another way to get some grant money and not have work for a living.
One thing I bet they learned is that Neolithic peoples paid a lot more attention to the weather.
"...equipment and food that mimicked – as closely as they could practically and legally manage it..."
Equipment that could not be managed legally. I guess they mean sharp pieces of rock?
Oy gov'ner - you got a license for that sharp rock and pointy stick?
:D
From the comments, I was reminded of this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Door-September-Alternate-Prehistoric-Wilderness-ebook/dp/B08FYR79J4/ref=sr_1_2?crid=PUCLI2PFD0XP&keywords=r+magnusholm&qid=1698361004&s=digital-text&sprefix=R+Magnu%2Cdigital-text%2C236&sr=1-2
I think, this is important. It is not to be taken as frivolous.
The Koni Tiki voyage and others are important to understand who and what type of people we truly are.
Today; we are, mostly a people, with no ancestral roots.
Even though we, as Americans, seems to have forgotten our ironclad belief, we could defeat and overcome any obstacles.
The best of us still remember, why our ancestors chose to exclude European donation from our existence, and, our future.
Bear in Indy
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