Birkenrinde Gefäße

[Kelvin Wilson]

Question... can birchbark containers hold fluid??

I am to portray a neolithic man working with an axe, and want to show him pausing and drinking from... well, anything else than a earthenware or wood container!

Something in the style of the leather bucket I believe found in a LBK-well in Germany is also on my mind...


Danke,


Kelvin Wilson

[ulfr]

When built like the one Ötzi carried with him, it won´t, because it wasn´t sealed, f.e. with wax or tar or resin. The water will move out of the stitches and through between the seams.

The buckets from the LBK-wells were made from lime tree bark
http://www.archaeoforum.de/viewtopic.php?t=2255&highlight=lindenrindeneimer

but they also weren´t really tight, you can´t carry fluid in it over a long time. Maybe these buckets were sealed in a way, but this is not certain.

Perhaps you may give the man a hose made from an animals stomach, skin or gut.
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"Der Archäologe kann die Tonne finden, aber den Diogenes verfehlen."
Sir Mortimer Wheeler

[Thomas Trauner]

Ulfr is right. Another idea: A skull
No - don´t.
I also alway wondered how liquids where carried, if there was a need of it. "Ötzi" did not seem to have anything with him.
The first "bottles" I know are from Laténe A. Before that I also think some form of skinmade hoses where used.

Thomas
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Tutenchamun was Nofretete ?

[Lassie]

In Friesack, a mesolithic site in Brandenburg, germany, a type of birch bark container was found, which is absolutely waterproof. See the contruction manual below:



As i know similar containers were also used by the natives of north america (mainly northeast-region) and scandinavia. Why not used by neolithic people?

Thomas

[Merha]

Yes, Ulfr is right. When sealing the bark container it would be possible but the container would not hold up for very long and you can’t transport lots of water in it.

Lassie is right too. But the problem would be how to get the container to the place you need it without spilling the water?

A good idea perhaps would be the skin of a case skinned animal, deer or goat for instance. You can transport lots of water in it over a long distance. Even better would be to bark tan this skin and seal it with a mixture of pine resin and fat. There might be no trace of such a procedure in Neolithic history but I wouldn’t hesitate to consider it being absolutely possible. That’s one of my projects for the coming winter.

If you only have a bark tanned skin (no hose) than you could seal the inside as mentioned above and simply form a kind of bag that you tightly wrap on the top with a leather string. Depending on its size you could thus transport several litres over a long distance and it would at least to my thinking look very authentic.