any opinions

[kreative]

Posted by [Mainejman]:

In the northeast it has been established that the earliest known vessels were dugouts made with gouges.With the much later arrival of the birch bark canoe the gouge was history.If the gouge is pretty much a northeastern tool.How did other cultures to the west make there dugouts?

[Hoss]

How far west? That is a good question They find dugouts in the deep south too. But the Hard stone Gouge tool form is not found there.

[Ron Kelley]

One thing that was used to produce the cavity was hot coals. The coals were piled on and left to do their damage. The weakened wood was cut away and more coals piled on and again the weakened wood was cut away. This process was repeated many times to create the cavity.

[tomclark]

Yep, what Ron said.  They adzed out the charred material first.  In my area they did not have much hardstone at all so they made hafted adzes out of shell.

[kreative]

Posted by [Mainejman]:

It seems the hollowing out technique was universal just the tools changed.