Transport & space · c. 8,000 BCE

Dugout canoe

A hollowed log becomes the first known boat, opening rivers and coasts to travel.

Hollowing a single tree trunk with stone tools and fire produced a stable, durable hull. The Pesse canoe from the Netherlands, dated to roughly 8000 BCE, is the oldest surviving boat. Watercraft of some kind carried people to Australia over 50,000 years ago, and dugouts remained the backbone of river travel for millennia.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

First stone tools 3.3M years ago

What it led to 2

Sailing ships 3500 BCE
Outrigger canoe 1500 BCE

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)