Bark

Bark, like reeds and skin, was one of the most obvious materials for prehistoric man to use and, like those, it leaves very little trace in the archaeological record. However, we know that in various early societies throughout the world it has been recorded as being used to make shelters, roofs, flooring, pit-lining, tapers, torches, shoes, cradles, beehives, net floats, holsters, containers and, of course, boats. ¹ Since many of these communities were wandering bands of hunter-fishers, it is quite likely that equivalent uses of bark were made in pre-agricultural times. Evidence that this was indeed so comes from the birch bark found in the Mesolithic sites of Star Carr in Yorkshire and Mullerup in Denmark, where it was stored in rolls ready for use, just as the modern Lapps do. ² Other evidence for the early use of birch bark is the high standard its working had attained in Neolithic Switzerland, and the well-known drinking vessel from the oak coffin of Egtved in Denmark on whose base could still be found the remnants of a drink of cranberry wine flavoured with myrtle and honey. ³