The Kayak – since when?

The use of kayaks is generally understood to be connected to the Eskimos or Inuits. Today’s results of scientific research prove however, that the kayak as a tool of hunting is not directly connected to the culture of these people. It was the need for food under changing climatic conditions, related to the presence or migration of animals to be hunted, that inevitably led during the phases of settlement to the water and thereby to the kayak as a hunting tool.

In our museum-like presentation we initially concentrated exclusively on Greenland to investigate the beginning, i.e. the moment of birth of the use of the kayak. Modern scientific research confirms that the Saqqaq people moved around on water already 2400 years bc. Whether they used the kayak for hunting cannot be determined. Who wants, however, doubt, that marine animals were hunted from the boat if there was open water in or on which these wild animals existed.

An interesting article about the first Greenlanders has been published by the magazine “Polarfronten 1/2010”. A group of scientists around Eske Willerslev of the Institute of Basic Research for GeoGenetic of the University of Copenhagen analysed the first Greenlanders based on genetic analysis. Samples of 4000 year old hair from excavations in the Disco Bay allowed statements about their personal features. The DNA analysis stated that the remains came from a man with brown eyes, who had blood group A and dark hairs. It was proved that he belonged to the Saqqaq culture. Identical characteristics were found at the Northeast Asians and in Siberia. These people belonged to the first immigrants to Greenland via Alaska and Canada. It may be shown that the Saqqaq culture is the second immigration wave which came via North America to Greenland.

(Copied with kind permission by the Forsknings- og Innovationsstyrelsen from “Polarfronten” 1/2010)

Throughout the world research is been done based on gene analysis and fossil material. The group of scientists around Eske Willerslev is top level in this field. 2003 he presented 10-40000 year old plants and remains of animals. 2007 he presented 450-800000 year old plants and animals taken from cores drilled from ice. Thereby science proved that Greenland once was covered by forests like Scandinavia. Similarly it was proven that the first immigration from Siberia to the American continent took place 12300 years ago, 1000 years earlier than assumed up to recently. Did they have boats? This is not mentioned. At that time the continents were still connected by land.

In the actual literature about the Dorset I people and their excavation there are only few remarks about the kayak. The hunt by kayak is mentioned more intensely, however superficial, in descriptions of the settlements of the Dorset II people and relevant excavations. It is possible that because of ice conditions the use of the kayak for hunting was neither possible nor necessary. The use of boats for hunting was, however, at least known to the people, which years before dared to migrate across the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. Were those boats kayaks?

In the book “Original Eskimo History” (Vermerk: Bitte im Buch nachsehen wie der englische Titel im Original heißt und ggf. aufnehmen.) it is stated that it is without doubt that during the Paläo cultures skin covered boats did exist. The further settling of the Alaskan islands would otherwise not have been possible.  Dogs and sleds could hardly been used in this terrain. The Paläo cultures existed 4000 years ago as has been determined by C14 methods.

The inhabitants of the coastal areas, the Aleuts, used boats, kayaks or baidarkas. This key information comes from the now famous village Anangula, situated on a small island off the island Umnak. This settlement existed already 8800 years ago. The population there made its living by hunting marine mammals with the aid of boats. Also in Siberia open boats were found which were similar to Umiaks. From these facts it was deduced that initially there where open boats and only afterwards fully covered boats, the Kayaks came into use.

The Inuit population had boats too. They lived, like the Netsilik, in the tundra. These boats where the fastest and also the most dangerous kayaks at all. Having a length of 6 meters and a width of less than 40 centimetres with an absolute semicircular frame they where scaring labile and the most dangerous vessels used by paddlers. They where not used in the open sea but exclusively on rivers when hunting caribous. That these peoples used kayaks may be understood from the facts that they had contact with the Inuit cultures which settled in Western Alaska. They also had contact with the Indians which used canoes also for fishing. In the book “The Bark Canoes and the Skin Boats of North America“ (page 208) there is a picture of a Kayak which is, however, covered by seal skin. The question is: How did the Netsilik get seal skins? The boat came from King William Land, which may very well be designated as being “coastal”.

(Copied with kind permission of the Smithsonian Institute from “The Bark Canoes and the Skin Boats of North America”)

The stated ages of the cultures and the remains partially spread over a large time frame. Reason is that these statement in the literature published 1930 – 50 seldom were based on C14 methods. Only in later years the age of the remains found during excavations was determined by these methods.

The C14 method is an important aid in archaeological investigations. Using radioactive carbon the age of remains of wood or plants, of animal or human bones, of gear found within the same ground layer may be determined. This method was developed in the early 1950ies by the chemist Willard Libby (1908 – 1990). He was granted the Nobel Price for his achievement. The radioactive dating is based on the fact that some remains of wood or plants contain rests of carbon 14, a radioactive isotope of carbon. This isotope is been stored by the plants during lifetime and starts to degenerate afterwards. Half-life of carbon 14 is very long, roughly 5570 years. Even after many 1000 years rests of carbon remain. Libby proved that it is possible to determine the remaining amount of the original carbon 14 by exact measurements. The method may be used for time frames up to 100000 years. The variation from the correct age value may amount up to 8%.

One has to grant excellent sensitivity, special knowledge and ability to communicate to all the scientists who performed the excavations between Canada and Greenland and determined and dated the settlements and the remains found there.

The dates indicated in the graphs of the times of settling spread over a wide time frame. In contrary to them, the dates stated in the table taken from the book Grønlandsforhistorie of the Nationalmuseet Center for Grønlandsforskning may be taken as guiding in the right direction.