Congress Schedule and Speakers

Preliminary Schedule

Details of this schedule are subject to change. Please note:

The conference proper runs 6-8 November. Registration includes coffee breaks and the special presentation on 5 November (“In the Wake of Colmcille”).

The following are not included in the base ticket price and must be selected as extras during registration:

Thursday, 5 November

15:00 Walking tour of historic Derry

18:00 In the Wake of Colmcille. A special presentation by Robin Ruddock on his curragh expedition from Derry to Iona.

Friday, 6 November

8:00 Registration opens

9:00 Conference start

9:15 Welcoming address

9:25 Keynote address by Prof. Lucy Blue: Endangered Knowledge: the value of documenting traditional boats before it is too late

10:45 – 17:15 Conference sessions, including coffee breaks and lunch

18:00 Reception with the Mayor of Derry/Londonderry

Saturday, 7 November

8:30 Registration opens

9:00 Keynote address by Béat Arnold: Some comments on the Bronze Age logboats of western Switzerland

9:55 – 17:25 Conference sessions, including coffee breaks and lunch

17:30 Banquet

Sunday, 8 November

8:30 Registration opens

9:00 Panel discussion: Establishing a Nomenclature for Early Watercraft Studies

9:55 – 16:25 Conference sessions, including coffee breaks and lunch

16:25 – 17:25 EWA business meeting (all are welcome)

Monday, 9 November

9:30 – 17:30 Coach tour of the North of Ireland Causeway Coastline, including Giants Causeway, Dunluce Castle and Bushmills Distillery (end time approximate)

Confirmed Speakers and Presentations

Béat Arnold, Laténium Museum: KEYNOTE. Some comments on the Bronze Age logboats of western Switzerland

Marwa Abdel Aziz, Department of Underwater Antiquities, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt: Beyond the Painted Surface: The Innovation of The Middle Kingdom

Joana Baço, Centre for the Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon: Small canoes on large maps: an analysis of the iconography of the Portuguese colonial world (16th-19th centuries)

Benjamin Ballester, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile: The sea lion skin raft from the Atacama Desert coast, northern Chile

Boel Bengtsson, Gothenburg University: Tools and Methods for determining seafaring capabilities of ancient boats

Swarup Bhattacharyya, National Maritime Heritage Complex, Lothal: From Plantain Rafts to “Mother’s Lap”: Cognitive and Cultural Significance of Bengal’s Wooden Boats — A Living Tradition

Lucy Blue, Univ. of Southampton, Nautical Archaeology Society, Honor Frost Foundation: KEYNOTE. Endangered Knowledge: the value of documenting traditional boats before it is too late

Karl Brady, Underwater Archaeology Unit, National Monuments Service, Ireland: The Extended Logboat Tradition in Bronze Age Ireland: New Insights from the Garraunfadda Boat

Sarah Day: For fun, and for science. Nine days on the Thames in hide canoes

Colin Dunlop, Historic Environment Division, Northern Ireland: Researching, Locating and Mapping Northern Ireland’s Logboats

Thomas Frank, University of Aarhus, Denmark: Eastern Viking Age waterways and boats

Alberto Garcia-Piquer, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; Nelson Aguilera, Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena, Chile: The development of sewn plank canoes in Southernmost South America: evaluating socioeconomic implications from an archaeological, ethnohistorical and computational approach

Damian M. Goodburn, freelance archaeological woodworking specialist: Fourteen serious dugout boat building experiments and some insights gained into ancient, woodlands, technology and social organisation

Paul Gosling, Atlantic Technological University, Ireland: Where the Road meets the River: Fords, Ferry Points and Early Watercraft

Niall Gregory, Gregory Archaeology, EWA: Dugout boat propulsion: Collation and outcomes from Irish experimental archaeology, archaeological surveys and excavation

Niall Gregory, Gregory Archaeology, EWA: Dugout boat discoveries on the Foyle and Finn Rivers, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland: Typological variances in the context of a riverine landscape

Harriet Grylls, Univ. of Southampton, NAS; Peta Knott, NAS, Archiving Memories: Cataloguing an ethnographic boat collection from yesteryear for future public engagement

Robert Hayes, Maritime Heritage Chapter, Archeological Society of Virginia; David Moran, Deltaville Maritime Museum and Holly Point Nature Park: Influence of Enslaved African and African-American Boatbuilders on the Development of Vernacular Watercraft of the Mid-Atlantic United States

Robert Henshall, Bundle Rush Rafts in Ireland: Evidence, Misinterpretation, and Experiment

Catherine Holt, Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery, Dover Bronze Age Boat: The boat, the replica, the legacy

Bob Holtzman, University of Southampton: Ethnography of Watercraft “Evolution” in Amazonian Ecuador

Hurmet-Mihkel Ilus, University of Tartu / MTÜ ÜÜ, Estonia: The Continuation of Expanded Dugout Boat Culture as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Tradition Through Community Engagement

Heather Jeans, St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum; Dr. John Bratten, University of West Florida: Caring for Early Watercraft: Conservation Assessment and Digital Documentation of Alabama Dugout Canoes

Shadi Kalantar, UC Louvain: The Shāsh Raft in Southern Iran: Construction, Regional Diversity, and Ancient Roots

Mert Uğur Kara, Trakya University, Turkiye: Traditional Boatbuilding and Regional Variations in the Turkish Black Sea: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective

Jaan Keerdo, Estonian Logboat Society: Expanding a Dugout Canoe in a Smoke Sauna

Marcelo Lins, Federal University Of Pernambuco: The Use of the Lateen Sail in the Jangada of Northeastern Brazil: A Hypothesis on the Evolution of the Mast Support in the Apeiba Raft

Alice Lucchini, Ars Nautica (Institute for Maritime Heritage): Logboats in Northern Italy: Renewing the Evidence Base

Matheo Magras: Palm canoes of the Amazon basin

Daniel Miguel Nieva Sanz, University of Trier; Willington Barranco‑Pérez, Universidad del Magdalena, Colombia; Alberto J. Gullón‑Abao, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain; L. Carlos Álvarez-Ochoa, Universidad de Magdalena, Colombia; M. Viviana Granados‑León, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia; José Luis Portillo‑Sotelo, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain; Michelle V. Soto‑Avendaño, Universidad del Magdalena, Colombia: A Transdisciplinary and Diachronic Study on the historical Role of the Monoxilous Canoe in the Colombian Rivers

Claidhbh Ó Gibne, Boyne Currach Heritage Group, Boyne Currach Centre: Lessons learnt from the ancient craft of Currach making

Laura Peruzzi, Thesan Studio associato di Archeologia, Livorno, Italy: The river boats of Pisa between archaeology and ethnography

Aivar Ruukel, Haabjakoda: How to interpret early watercraft?

Elena Saccone, LAPPU, FHCE, Udelar; Camila Gianotti: Early Watercraft and cultural diversity in Maritime Landscapes of Southeastern Uruguay

Elena Saccone, LAPPU, FHCE, Udelar; Rodolfo Pienika; Romina Suárez Bon; Florencia Blanco; Guidaí Vargas; Sofía Buschiazzo; Marcela Rodríguez: Indigenous Dugout Canoes in the Río de la Plata: Integrating Archaeology, Naval Engineering and Hydrodynamic Experimentation

Rashad Salim, Safina Projects CIC: Mesopotamian Bundle Constructed Watercraft of the Ark for Iraq Programme

Darina Tully, Saor Ollscoil na hEireann (Retired): What were small ancient water craft capable of achieving?