Sean McGrail

The Archaeology of the Hasholme Logboat

On the 29 July 1984 archaeologists engaged in a survey of the later Prehistoric and Romano-British landscape around Holme-on-Spalding Moor in East Yorkshire visited land at Hasholme which was being drained. Examination of the drainage works led to the discovery of fragments of a substantial logboat amongst timbers which had been removed from the fenland by the contractors after fouling their mole drainer. These fragments were rescued and their findspot (SE 822326) identified by the workmen. An excavation was organized by the first author in conjunction with Hull City Museums, to examine the remainder of the vessel, to investigate its context and establish its date. The spectacular and substantially intact remains of an oak logboat were located, excavated and recorded ‘in situ’ in co-operation with a team from the Archaeological Research Centre of the National Maritime Museum under the direction of the second author. The boat was raised and taken to the National Maritime Museum for study before being retur...

Barland's farm, Magor, Gwent: a Romano-Celtic boat

Recent excavations on the Gwent Levels, in the wetlands of the Severn Estuary, south Wales, have recovered substantial remains of a waterlogged boat, of probable late 3rd- to early 4th-century AD date.

Hornell, Hasslöf and Boatbuilding Sequences

Hornells publications on ‘native watercraft’ form a unique ‘library’ dealing with boatbuilding and boat use. His quest for the origins of water transport, on the other hand, was unsuccessful. In a clarification of the issues involved, Hasslof criticized Hornells use of the term ‘carvel’ and proposed ‘shell-first’ and ‘skeleton-first’ as best able to characterize boatbuilding traditions. Those terms subsequently gave way to ‘plank-first’ and ‘frame-first’. Certain north-west European vessels, each built in both those sequences, were identified by Hasslof as a link between ‘plank-first’ and ‘frame-first’. Such a transition would have been facilitated by the use of ‘framing-first’, a building sequence used in north-west Europe and in the eastern Mediterranean from the early 1st millennia AD.