A splitt-ingly good idea!

With the method of burning out the inside of the log not going so well and our period tools broken or having not been delivered it was time to think of a new way to approach hollowing out The Eurybia. Looking through our research library I discovered the answer........ we could split the wood out.

The process of splitting out wood from the inside of The Eurybia. Oak wedges were hammered into the heart wood of The Eurybia to split out big chunk of the inside.

Evidence for splitting wood in prehistory dates back to the Neolithic (4,000-2,200BC) where large timbers that have been split have been discovered on monumental sites. Evidence for this method of wood working in the Mesolithic was recently non existent but a discovery on the excavations of Bouldner Cliff, Isle of White, Hampshire, have found potential evidence for its use in this time period.

During excavation on this now underwater Mesolithic settlement site archaeologists discovered 'a large timber of oak which has been tangentially split'. With the lack of any evidence of large monumental sites or buildings from this time period it has been theorised that this method of reducing wood could come from the building of a boat. So we thought lets give it a go!

Placing the wedge into position before hammering it along the grain of the wood to split out the inside of the log.

 Seasoned oak wedges were made (it was thought that oak would have been the material used by Mesolithic man to make his wedges as it is very solid), the grain runs vertically through the wedge to give it as much strength as possible. These wedges were then positioned into the log and hammered into the heart wood. The wedges worked very well and removed large chunks of the inside of the log with each go. This looks like a very feasible method for Mesolithic man to have hollowed out his boats.

A section of wood that has been tangentially split from the inside of The Eurybia. 

After feeling very low due to our inability to carry on with the boat build using authentic tools and methods discovering this method and knowing that is a potential method used by Mesolithic man has restored our drive and it also helps that it removes a lot more material with much less effort than adzing alone!

In the right hand is a single section of wood removed by using wedges, in the left is the shavings that were removed in the same time it took to split off the right hand chunk.

Archaeological evidence from the Bouldnor Cliff site, Isle of White, Hampshire suggests that Mesolithic man tangentially split wood in order to reduce its size. Our experiment has shown that this method of wood working is able to be used in logboat construction. We hope to continue using this method and producing samples of split wood to compare with other archaeological examples to support our method and its use in prehistoric boat building.

For more information on the Bouldnor Cliff excavations please visit: http://www.maritimearchaeologytrust.org/bouldnor.