Log + Fire + Hard Work = Boat : SUNY Potsdam Archaeology Class Launches Dugout Canoe Friday

Experimental Archaeology Students Use Stone Age Methods to Build Boat and Tools in SUNY Potsdam Course

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Students in the SUNY Potsdam experimental archaeology course pose behind their dugout canoe.

POTSDAM, NY (07/30/2015)(readMedia)-- It's one thing to learn about ancient transportation methods in your anthropology course. It's another to actually build a dugout boat yourself -- using nothing but fire, handmade tools and one giant pine log.

Nine students in a SUNY Potsdam experimental archaeology course led by Dr. Timothy Messner have spent the past three weeks honing a canoe out of a 16-foot white pine log.

Tomorrow, they will face the ultimate test, as they launch their completed vessel, nicknamed "Doug" (for dugout), into the nearby Raquette River.

Each morning, the students have carefully packed clay from the riverbed along the edges of their boat, and then built small fires on top of the log, which are tended to for two to three hours before being extinguished. The students gathered firewood from the surrounding forest in the College's Lehman Park.

This style of boat is among the most ancient, with vessels dating back 8,000 years having been discovered. Log boats were used across the globe, including by indigenous peoples in North America.

While they watch the coals burn, the students crafted Stone Age tools using ancient methods. The first week, they produced chip stone tools, such as arrowheads and spear points. After that, they made ground stone tools, such as stone adzes, using Adirondack orthocite, followed by fiber technologies, including fishing nets and lines woven from dried milkweed, dogbane and basswood. In their final week, the students have worked on Stone Age food processing tools.

Once the coals cooled, Dr. Messner and the students gathered around the log and carefully scraped out the charred wood using their tools. Even on the hottest summer days, they managed to make progress.

Last summer, Messner led a field school and archaeological dig at the same site, which produced evidence of human habitation on the Potsdam riverfront in Lehman Park going back as far as 5,000 years.

"People were here thousands of years ago, doing exactly what we are doing now," Messner said. "It is very important for students to learn from research projects that revolve around reconstructing the past."

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Department of Anthropology, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Anthro.

WHO:

SUNY Potsdam anthropology faculty/students

WHAT:

Students will launch the dugout log canoe that they spent the last three weeks making with fire and hard work. They will also display the Stone Age tools that they produced during their course as well.

Dr. Timothy Messner will also be able to discuss his discovery of artifacts dating to 5,000 years ago in the same location last summer.

WHEN: Friday July 31, 2015 at 12:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
WHERE: Lehman Park
SUNY Potsdam
Pierrepont Ave.
Potsdam, New York 13676
NOTES:

Please note that the experimental archaeology site is not immediately visible from the Lehman Park parking lot. To get to the site, you must follow the mowed clearing to the left of the parking lot. You may want to bring weather-appropriate footwear and clothing.

If you have any questions about this project, please call Alexandra Jacobs Wilke at (315) 212-7418.