The canoe was revealed near the sheltered Anaweka estuary, on the northwestern end of New Zealand's South Island.
"It kind of took my breath away, really, because it was so carefully constructed and so big," said Dilys Johns, a senior research fellow at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
The hull measured about 20 feet long and it was made from matai, or black pine, found in New Zealand. The boat had carved interior ribs and clear evidence of repair and reuse. Carbon dating tests showed that the vessel was last caulked with wads of bark in 1400.
Johns and colleagues say it's likely that the hull once had a twin, and together, these vessels formed a double canoe (though the researchers haven't ruled out the possibility that the find could have been a single canoe with an outrigger). If the ship was a double canoe, it probably had a deck, a shelter and a sail that was pitched forward, much like the historic canoes of the Society Islands (a group that includes Bora Bora and Tahiti) and the Southern Cook Islands. These island chains have been identified as likely Polynesian homelands of the Maori, the group of indigenous people who settled New Zealand.
The boat was surprisingly more sophisticated than the canoes described centuries later by the first Europeans to arrive in New Zealand, Johns told Live Science. At the time of European contact, the Maori were using dugout canoes, which were hollowed out from single, big trees with no internal frames. In the smaller islands of Polynesia, boat builders didn't have access to trees that were big enough to make an entire canoe; to build a vessel, therefore, they had to create an elaborate arrangement of smaller wooden planks.
The newly described canoe seems to represent a mix of that ancestral plank technology and an adaptation to the new resources on New Zealand, since the boat has some big, hollowed-out portions but also sophisticated internal ribs, Johns and colleagues wrote.
The turtle carving on the boat also seems to link back to the settlers' homeland. Turtle designs are rare in pre-European carvings in New Zealand, but widespread in Polynesia, where turtles were important in mythology and could represent humans or even gods in artwork. In many traditional Polynesian societies, only the elite were allowed to eat turtles, the study's authors noted.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/09/30/sophisticated-600-year-old-canoe-discovered-in-new-zealand/ Capt Asparagus wrote: No no no! Not possible! :-) That is cool about that canoe, isn't it. The folks in the cooks insist that their people were the ones that came to nz. |
Reel Deal wrote: I think your summary Lemmy was what the article was pointing to. just stunning craftsmanship. I see an error though. They say human history started 1200,1300 when they meant Maori History. Plenty of evidence of humans long before that. |
Godders wrote: I had a 600 year old canoe once but was too heavy and hard to retrieve on my own. |
lemmy wrote:
Whoops yeah should have read the article first,. I,ve done a fair bit of research into early New Zealand Habitation and a yet to see one bit of solid evidence of Humans being here in any numbers before Maori colonised it in 1200 ,1300 most will agree it is possible some Asian Mariners came and went . And I know about all the rat bones,stone villages,Celts etc etc,still to see one bit of solid evidence and I know all the conspiracy theorys will say it has been hidden from us maybe it has??? |
Capt Asparagus wrote: Hmmmmmmm....... 7 to 8 foot tall skeletons....who were they, aliens? Or super tall red haired Masai? :-) What about the moriori though? (Try slipping moriori past bloody iPads autocorrect! Sheeesshhhh) I would not be surprised the Chinese visited here, given the Chinese DNA in Maori, that could have happened. Forget the phonecians, celts etc though, that is just fantasy. |
fish-feeder wrote: Lemmy,how about the FACT that the nga puhi chief David rankin says they wernt the first ones here? Or all the stories from the tribes around rotorua and taupo saying that they wernt here first...or the fact that the koru pa at taranaki was built at a time when there was clear evidence that not enough people were in NZ let alone taranaki to build it...and man it effectively....it was printed that it was built a long time before the maori were said to arrive? Or the spanish armour found at pouto,or the aboriginal boomerang found in dargaville,or the tamil bell found in wellington harbour,or the 7-8ft tall skeletons found in the raglan caves...with long platted red hair,and samples of a woven tartan cloth found with them.There is alot of evidence hidden and its sad,because its our history,european or maori,we have the right to know.Some sites are worthy of Unesco preservation,but DOC shoves it all under the carpet. One tribe had its MDNA traced back to iran,as mentioned in the tribes stories,they always knew where and when they came from........ |
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