Tomol: Construction, History, and Significance of the Chumash Canoe

The tomol is a Chumash plank canoe. The Chumash are a complex hunter-gatherer Native American group that, as early as 13,500 years ago, colonized areas of coastal Southern California and across the Santa Barbara Channel on the Northern Channel Islands. Their early watercraft technologies included a round-bottomed pine dugout, which was relatively unstable and used only in estuaries close to land, and a tule reed balsa. The tule reed balsa was capable of carrying a few people across the channel but was not reliable in inclement weather, nor was it adequate for the transport of heavy or bulky items. Thus, to maintain the connection between the mainland and the islands, a sturdier watercraft was required. The tomol developed by the Chumash was a high-capacity vessel six to seven meters in length and capable of transporting two tons of cargo or up to twelve passengers. It was the single most valuable piece of property in the Chumash economy, and only chiefs and certain other elites owned tomols.

CONSTRUCTION. The tomol was constructed of redwood planks, milkweed fibers, and asphaltum (a sticky tar) and took approximately 500 person-days of skilled labor to complete. The planks were made from light, rot-resistant, and easily worked drift redwood that floated down the coast from central California, which was a material that proved to be of substantially higher quality than the little-used pine more locally available. These driftwood pieces were split, planed, and precisely gauged with clamshell, bone, or stone implements before being tied together with milkweed fiber. The craft was then caulked and sealed with a mixture of asphaltum and pine pitch to make it mostly waterproof. Ochre and shell were sometimes used to decorate the exterior of the canoe.

HISTORY. There is no doubt that these seafaring vessels were in use when Europeans made contact with the Chumash in the mid-1500s, but the origin of this technology is a little bit more tenuous. One theory surmises that tomols appeared in the Santa Barbara Channel area 8,000 years ago (c. 6000 BCE); another theory suggests that Polynesian sailors landed in California 1,500 years ago (c. 500 CE) and the Chumash copied Polynesian technology. However, the most recent data suggest that the Chumash people themselves created the tomol around 500 CE.

This most recent claim—that the Chumash developed tomol technology themselves— is based on a change of dates pertaining to Polynesian exploration of the Pacific and on consistent dating of the faunal remains of large open-ocean fish found in the archaeological record. Researchers have concluded that Polynesian colonization of the Eastern Pacific happened several centuries later than previously supposed, perhaps no later than 800-900 CE. This date occurs 200 to 300 years later than the appearance of the first large, open- ocean fish in the archaeological record in Chumash territory. The appearance of these large, aggressive fish is significant because they would have required the steady, strong, seaworthy tomol for the Chumash to procure such foodstuffs.

SIGNIFICANCE. The tomol was an incredibly practical and useful tool that also created considerable social advantages. Arnold and Bernard focus on three practical and three sociopolitical advantages that are an excellent representation of the role of the tomol in Chumash culture. The first practical advantage is efficiency, as overseas transport is bulkier, cheaper, and ultimately safer than overland transport. Tomols were capable of carrying up to two tons of weight, which allowed for much more substantial cross-channel trade of crops and crafted goods.

The second is the ability to capture seals and fish that were at greater distances from the shore. Third, the tomol offered more frequent access to the open ocean. The aforementioned practical advantages also provided sociopolitical benefits. Only a few high-ranking members of the Chumash community owned tomols, which were an essential part of the trade between the mainland and the islands. Elite tomol owners charged for passage across the channel and took a cut of shipments in the form of goods. As the mainland became increasingly reliant on island shell bead manufacturing and the islands counted on certain plant foods and other items from the mainland, controlling this trade was lucrative, and elites accrued wealth through the use of their tomols. In addition to carrying goods across the channel, these boats transported news about alliances and animosities, marriageable partners, deaths, the health of relatives, and events such as seasonal ceremonies and feasts. This transmission of essential cultural information made the maintenance of social ties between these two landforms another important role of the tomol. The plank canoes thus played an important role in the accrual of status and prestige. Owners of tomols could acquire and share resources that others did not have access to, and the willingness of elites to share resources such as the large pelagic fish contributed to social differentiation.

FURTHER READING: Arnold, Jeanne E. 2007. “Credit Where Credit is Due: The History of the Chumash Oceangoing Plank Canoe.” American Antiquity 72 (2): 196-209.

Arnold, Jeanne E. and Julienne Bernard. 2005. “Negotiating the Coasts: Status and the Evolution of Boat Technology in California.” World Archaeology 3 (1): 109-31.

Hunt, Terry L. and Carl P Lipo. 2006. “Late Colonization of Easter Island.” Science 311: 1603-6. Kennett, D. J. 2005. The Island Chumash: Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.