Practical Knowledge in theViking Age: the use of mental templates in clinker shipbuilding

Abstract

It has long been recognized that ships built according to the Nordic clinker tradition during the Viking Age were conceived and constructed simultaneously by eye, in a shell-first manner, and using rules-of-thumb to control both the longitudinal and transversal shape of the hull. While a lot of attention has been paid to the conceptual definition of the keel and stems, far less research has explored how such rules would have worked while planking the hull. Two cargo-ships, Skuldelev 3 and Skuldelev 1, are used to argue for pre-design and the use of mental templates. This highlights a cognitive dimension of practical knowledge, in particular how it was accumulated, stored and transmitted.

Quantifying Ship Shape in Archaeology: Evaluating 3D Geometric Morphometrics

“…6). This correlates well with the thought process of a shipwright when building a ship, where the midship or master section and stem and stern will, to a large degree, determine the shape of a vessel (Dhoop and Olaberria, 2015: 106). When attempting to group hull shapes according to environment, the same issues arise as with linear measurement ratios and form coefficients, again due to arbitrary classifications and the exclusion of size.…”

Rules of thumb and cultural evolution: How simple heuristics have guided human adaptation and the emergence of cultural complexity

“…Overall, however, the history of building and technology is much less bleak. Histories of engineering and building suggest that the practical knowledge used before mechanization made efficient use of cognitive shortcuts, and that rules of thumb often guided successful tinkering that led to technological innovation and more complex rules (Dhoop & Olaberria, 2015;Fitchen, 1989;James, 1982;Olaberria, 2014;Turnbull, 1993). As Brencich & Morbiducci (2007) note, ancient structures were designed often with "semi-empirical rules based on few simplified mechanical principles", but nevertheless, their structural performance in the majority of cases was surprisingly good.…”

“…Certainly, Crumlin-Pedersen (1986, p. 220) emphasises, there are no indications that construction drawings or downscaled models (or perhaps even moulds) were used in Viking shipbuilding in Scandinavia. Shipbuilders would often be illiterate, and would not have understood the mechanical principles underlying the function of ships (Dhoop & Olaberria, 2015).…”

“…These proportional rules of thumb could be offloaded onto a simple physical form, for example as a story-stick on which critical measurements would be recorded (Dhoop & Olaberria, 2015). In simpler cases, rules of thumb could be transcribed into a verbal form -less precise, but an effective memory aid and a pragmatic unit for cultural transmission (Dhoop & Olaberria, 2015). Dhoop & Olaberria (2015, p. 103) emphasize that the aim of these rules of thumb was not to rigidly define the construction of the ship.…”

“…Unfortunately, as practical crafts became increasingly mechanised -and as a direct result of scientific management trends such as Taylorism, which sought to replace diverse and idiosyncratic rules of thumb with standardised practices 13 (Scott, 1998;Taylor, 1919) -many traditional rules of thumb used in practical crafts and architecture did not survive to the modern day. Uncovering traditional rules of thumb on the basis of archaeological, architectural or ethnographic evidence is difficult and tedious work which often requires deep expertise in the studied practice (see, e.g., Crumlin-Pedersen, 1986Dhoop & Olaberria, 2015;Fitchen, 1989;James, 1982;Olaberria, 2014;Alexander, 1977). A systematic research program combining insights from ecological rationality and cultural evolution could begin the task of putting together the few examples of past rules of thumb we have reliable evidence of.…”