Canoe Paddle from Rio Beni

Paddle from Beni River, obverse This wonderful paddle, in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History , is from the Beni River...

More Old Quffa Photos

In response to our recent post on the Mesopotamian quffa , Harvey Golden sent us these scans of old stereoscope photos in his possession. (H...

Vietnamese Coracles

" Coracle fishing boats at Mui Ne Bay , Vietnam " by  Ray Zhoul (Click any image to enlarge.) Vietnam is the only land where corac...

The Mesopotamian Quffa or Kuphar

Round boats are a fascination, and the quffa, a basket-built boat from Iraq, is among the most fascinating because of its well-documented an...

Kerala Coracle

"Coracle" from the Indian state of Kerala. Image by Joe Niemczura. (Click to enlarge.) We received this photo over a year ago from...

Belizean Dugouts #5: Propulsion and Use

In the previous installment in this series on Belizean dugout canoes, we looked at what appeared to be the most common form of propulsion -...

Belizean Dugouts #4: Paddles and Paddling

Just as Belizean dugout canoes exhibit great variety in their design and construction , so too do they vary in their means of propulsion. In...