In the era when mankind was not yet enlightened, the giant trees in the forest area grew wildly and towered into the sky.

Until the flash flood erupted, the big trees were washed down and floated on the water, and the humans who were swept into the torrent could not survive at all.

Only a handful of lucky people were able to cling to the trees in the water and thus find a chance to escape and cross the river.

Gradually, humans came to understand that the giant tree was capable of keeping itself afloat on the water.

After that, humans derived more uses, they learned to use trees to actively cross dangerous rivers, but using primitive trees is still dangerous, they are very slippery, easy to roll, people simply cannot stand on the rolling logs for a long time, and may still encounter some dangerous creatures in the river.

So people learned a simpler way: tie up several logs with ropes, so that a small floating area is formed, which does not roll over and is safer.

But such a raft can easily fall apart, and only a skilled person can master a good enough raft making method.

It wasn't until after a long period of river crossing practice that a clear realization emerged: as long as a section of trees was leveled and hollowed out, it could become a sturdy and agile vehicle - a canoe.

"Canoe, that's where the canoe came from."

As the second big tree fell to the ground, Bi Fang sat on the tree, panting slightly.

Cutting down a giant tree with an axe that is more than half a meter in diameter is still physically demanding, and it takes an hour just to cut down the tree.

"It has been recorded that people mainly used rafts during the Fuxi era, and boats did not appear until the time of the Yellow Emperor. In other words, there was a raft and then a boat, and of course, there is no way to verify whether this statement is true or false. ”

"Canoes have appeared about 7,000 years ago at the latest, and in 02 years, a section of canoe wreckage was unearthed at the site of the Xiaoshan Bridge across the lake in Zhejiang, which was more than five meters long and half a meter wide, about 8,000-7,000 years ago."

Canoe wreckage is rare, the wood is buried in the earth, and it is very easy to decay and fester.

"The original is a whole section of horsetail pine, first scorched with fire, and then processed and manufactured with stone adzes, the whole section of the boat body is relatively intact, and it is one of the oldest canoes in the world."

What is a stone adze? 】

"Stone adzes are a kind of polished stone tools, rectangular, single-sided blades, and some stone adzes are ground off at the upper end, which is called 'stone adzes'. It was equipped with a wooden handle and could be used for felling and digging soil, and it was a typical tool for making canoes at that time. ”

"This thing is one of the most distinctive production tools in the vast area of the eastern coast of China, including the Hemudu site, which has been unearthed in a large number of sites, which can be used in the manufacture and production of boats, and has also been found in many parts of the world, and has become one of the important physical evidence to explore the migration of early humans across the ocean."

[Historian Fang, online]

[It's another day of learning]

[Although I don't know what the use of learning is, but I will talk about it after learning]

[You can brag when you chat with friends in the future (laughs)]

After resting for a while, Bi Fang, who had regained some strength, stood up and looked at the two big trees lying across the ground.

The visual effect of the palm tree after the fall is even stronger, and these two trees may not just be more than fifteen meters, or even close to twenty meters!

Bi Fang swung his axe again and cut off the excess branches.

"In the beginning, the structure of the canoe was very simple, usually a section of trough-shaped rotten wood was taken and the inside was slightly arranged, or a section of the trunk was cut into a groove, and then the side branches and branches were cut off from the outside."

"At that time, the main tools used to make canoes were stone knives, stone axes, etc., and it was of course difficult to make a canoe with such a rudimentary tool, especially digging a groove in the entire section of the trunk, so it was necessary to use fire when making a canoe."

Cutting off all the excess branches, Bi Fang dug a pit next to the two trees.

The tree was so big that he couldn't move it alone, so he had to make it on the spot.

The resort manager did not have any opinion on this, but welcomed it.

"The canoe is not simply a tool to split a groove, the wood is hard, it is difficult for us to grasp our own strength when chopping, so it is likely that we will accidentally split and leak, and then the previous efforts will be wasted, if you use a small tool to plane little by little, it will take too long."

"And the canoe was generally introduced in the late Paleolithic period, and did not enter the Iron Age, and the tools used were basically stones, and the use of stones to cut wood was extremely inefficient."

"At that time, the method of making a canoe was to coat the outside of the whole piece of wood with wet mud, burn the dry wood part of the middle part of the wooden strip into charcoal, and then chisel it with stone tools, and then chisel the whole piece of wood inward and layer by layer with stone tools, and finally make a canoe."

Bi Fang dug two large pits with a shovel in the adjacent land, one of which piled up tree branches, and then lit a fire with flint and steel to make a bonfire stand.

The other took the water and made a puddle, and then poured dirt into it and mixed it into a slurry.

He was also going to burn first and then cut it.

"Of course, this is a relatively common method, and there is a less common method that is unique to the local Aborigines of Australia."

"The Aboriginal approach of Australia is lighter and more imaginative than the one I've just talked about."

"They would find a thick tree, use a stone knife to break the bark around the base of the tree, and then break the bark around the trunk at the height of the trunk, up and down as long as the length of the canoe they wanted to make, and then they would rip off the bark whole."

"Soak the peeled bark in water for a few days to allow the bark to swell sufficiently, and then put the bark in a smoke fire to roast until soft. Fold the roasted bark in half at one end. ”

"Roasted bark tends to be very elastic, so you need to find two small trees with two trunks growing side by side and use them to clamp the bark at the folded end."

"In order to prevent the other parts from becoming small in volume due to folding in half at one end, it can be supported with a short stick. In a few days, the shape of the pinched bark was fixed, the edges were drilled with a stone knife, the front and back ends were sewn together with rattan, and a canoe was built. ”

"The soaked bark has a lot of water and is very heavy, and it often takes several adults to build a canoe."

"Of course, I can't choose this production method, on the one hand, I only have one person, and it is too difficult to make, and on the other hand, it takes a long time, whether it is soaking the bark, fixing the shape, and then stitching, it takes a lot of time and cost."

"If I'm not careful, if something is missing, it will be wasted and the cost is too high, so I still choose the simplest and most common firing method."

Bi Fang smeared mud on the palm trees.

Everyone was looking forward to it.

(End of chapter)