An ancient seascape
The social context of seafaring in the early Bronze Age
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3919944 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Van De Noort (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 404-415 |
| Publication date | 2004-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0043824042000185793 |
| OpenAlex | W2023754970 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 24 |
| References cited | 8 |
The social context of prehistoric seafaring remains poorly understood and, conversely, the significance of seafaring in exchange networks and the perception of seascape in the early Bronze Age are under-explored. This paper approaches seascapes as the synergy of maritime and landscape archaeology, and offers a new perspective on the social context of seafaring in the early Bronze Age. Around 2000 cal. bc, a new type of boat appears in the British Isles, the 'sewn-plank boat', with examples known from around the English and Welsh coast. This type of boat was probably used for seafaring and played a significant role in the development and maintenance of elite networks that extended over much of Europe by this time. The types of goods exchanged across the North Sea and the English Channel were of high status and were extensively used in ritualized practices. In this study, the landscape contexts of two sewn-plank boat sites, at North Ferriby and Kilnsea (both in East Yorkshire, England) are investigated. The North Ferriby foreshore can be interpreted as a prehistoric boatyard, also ideally suited as a landing place for ferrying across the Humber estuary. The landscape context of this boatyard includes archaeological evidence for farming on the foreshore and beyond and a nearby settlement, but no evidence of monuments, ritual deposition of artefacts or other ritualized activities. The Kilnsea site would have been ideally suited as a landing place for craft crossing the North Sea. Its landscape context includes several monuments, including two Bronze Age barrows, a possible mini-henge or hengiform and the remains of a Neolithic house. The landscape context of the North Ferriby boats indicate that the sewn-plank boats, their use in daily life and boat building and repair were not associated with ritualized activities; rather, these actions belonged to the rhythm of daily life. The use of these boats in seafaring, as inferred from the landscape context of the Kilnsea boat, however, implies close association with ancestors and ancestral rites and that the use of the craft in exchange with Continental Europe was a ritualized activity. The close association with ancestors refers to seafaring as a rite of passage, and to the sea as a liminal space. Keywords: Seascapesewn-plank boatslong-distance exchangeelite networksHumber estuarywetland archaeology
Archaeology · Bronze Age · Context (archaeology · Geography · Habitat · Landscape archaeology · Plank · Prehistory · Seascape · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Engineering · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
Transmission symbolique et la mer dans l’Europe mégalithique (4700–2500cal av. J.-C.)
Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Brough South, East Riding of Yorkshire
The Formation of a West African Maritime Seascape
Of His Bones are Coral Made
Settlement ecology of Bronze Age Transylvania
Wind and wave modelling for the evaluation of the maritime accessibility and protection afforded by ancient harbours
The Sea as a Hyperobject
Island Archaeology
The Maritime Cultural Landscape of Northern Patagonia
Regional Maritime Contexts and the Maritorium
More than the sea
Deconstructing Reconstruction
Virtual cultural landscapes
Boats Apart. Building and Equipping an Iron-Age and Early-Medieval Ship in Northern Europe
Paths Across the Sea
Seascapes and Landscapes-the Siting of the Ferriby Boat Finds in the Context of Prehistoric Pilotage
Least cost path analysis of early maritime movement on the Pacific Northwest Coast
Islandscapes and ‘Islandness’
Loose Howe; A North Yorkshire Log Coffin Boat Burial(s) Revisited
Could You Take a Picture of My Boat, Please? The Use and Significance of Mediterranean Ship Representations
Offshore Finds From the Bronze Age in North‐western Europe
Argonauts of the North Sea - a Social Maritime Archaeology for the 2nd Millennium BC
The social context of seafaring in the Bronze Age revisited
Along the Margins? The Later Bronze Age Seascapes of Western Ireland
Social formation and symbolic landscape
The Boats from North Ferriby, Yorkshire, England, with a review of the origins of the sewn boats of the Bronze Age
Middle Bronze Age trade between Britain and Europe
The Ferriby Boats
New AMS radiocarbon dates for the North Ferriby boats—a contribution to dating prehistoric seafaring in northwestern Europe
The ‘Kilnsea-boat’, and some implications from the discovery of England's oldest plank boat remains
Submerged Boat at North Ferriby (Plates V-VI)
Selective deposition in the British Early Bronze Age
| Citations per year | 1.09 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2004 - 2026 (23) |
| Highly cited | No |