Editing Boat (section)

== History ==
[[File:Silver model of a boat, tomb PG 789, Royal Cemetery of UR, 2600-2500 BCE.jpg|thumb|Silver model of a boat, tomb PG 789, [[Royal Cemetery of Ur]], 2600–2500 BCE]]
{{Further|Maritime history}}

===Differentiation from other prehistoric watercraft===
The earliest watercraft are considered to have been [[raft]]s. These would have been used for voyages such as the settlement of Australia sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.

A boat differs from a [[raft]] by obtaining its buoyancy by having most of its structure exclude water with a waterproof layer, e.g. the planks of a wooden hull, the hide covering (or tarred canvas) of a [[currach]]. In contrast, a raft is buoyant because it joins components that are themselves buoyant, for example, logs, bamboo poles, bundles of reeds, floats (such as inflated hides, sealed pottery containers or, in a modern context, empty oil drums). The key difference between a raft and a boat is that the former is a "flow through" structure, with waves able to pass up through it. Consequently, except for short river crossings, a raft is not a practical means of transport in colder regions of the world as the users would be at risk of [[hypothermia]]. Today that climatic limitation restricts rafts to between 40° north and 40° south, with, in the past, similar boundaries that have moved as the world's climate has varied.{{r|McGrail 2001|p=11}}

===Types===
The earliest boats may have been either [[Dugout (boat)|dugouts]] or hide boats.<ref name="McGrail 2001">
{{cite book|last=McGrail|first=Sean|title=Boats of the World|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-0-19-814468-7}}</ref>{{rp|11}} The oldest recovered boat in the world, the [[Pesse canoe]], found in the [[Netherlands]], is a dugout made from the hollowed tree trunk of a ''[[Pinus sylvestris]]'' that was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This [[canoe]] is exhibited in the [[Drents Museum]] in Assen, Netherlands.<ref name="Van der Heide">{{cite book|last=Van der Heide|first=G. D.|title=Scheepsarcheologie in Nederland|trans-title=Archeology of ships in the Netherlands|publisher=Strengholt|year=1974|location=[[Naarden]]|page=507}}</ref><ref name="Boat of Pesse">{{cite web|title=World's oldest boat|url=http://www.drentsmuseum.nl/collections/archaeology.html|access-date=2013-11-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529221723/http://www.drentsmuseum.nl/collections/archaeology.html|archive-date=2013-05-29|url-status=dead}}</ref> Other very old dugout boats have also been recovered.<ref name="chinaorg2002">{{cite web|title=Oldest Boat Unearthed|publisher=China.org.cn|url=http://lanzhou.china.com.cn/english/travel/50131.htm|access-date=2008-05-05|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090102183359/http://lanzhou.china.com.cn/english/travel/50131.htm|archive-date=2009-01-02}}</ref><ref name="McGrail431">{{cite book|last=McGrail|first=Sean|title=Boats of the World|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|location=Oxford, UK|page=431|isbn=978-0-19-814468-7}}</ref><ref name="italy2005">{{cite web|title=8,000-year-old dug out canoe on show in Italy|publisher=Stone Pages Archeo News|url=http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001511.html|access-date=2008-08-17}}</ref> Hide boats, made from covering a framework with animal skins, could be equally as old as logboats, but such a structure is much less likely to survive in an archaeological context.<ref name="Adams 2013">{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Jonathan |title=A maritime archaeology of ships: innovation and social change in late medieval and early modern Europe |date=2013 |publisher=Oxbow Books |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-78297-045-3}}</ref>{{rp|63}}

Plank-built boats are considered, in most cases, to have developed from the logboat. There are examples of logboats that have been expanded: by deforming the hull under the influence of heat, by raising up the sides with added planks, or by splitting down the middle and adding a central plank to make it wider. (Some of these methods have been in quite recent use{{snd}}there is no simple developmental sequence). The earliest known plank-built boats are from the Nile, dating to the third millennium BC. Outside Egypt, the next earliest are from England. The [[Ferriby Boats|Ferriby boats]] are dated to the early part of the second millennium BC and the end of the third millennium.{{r|Adams 2013|pp=63, 66-67}} Plank-built boats require a level of woodworking technology that was first available in the [[Neolithic]] with more complex versions only becoming achievable in the [[Bronze Age]].<ref name="McGrail 2014a">{{cite book |last1=McGrail |first1=Sean |title=Early ships and seafaring : European water transport |date=2014 |publisher=Pen and Sword Archaeology |location=South Yorkshire, England |isbn=9781781593929}}</ref>{{rp|59}}