Have been exploring what the seating thwarts might have looked like on a 6th century curragh. The picture here shows a solid wood seat in a one-man modern coracle--note the "woven" floorboards laid over the frames. As I work on this project, it seems that curraghs may have been little more than very large "baskets" woven together with hides stretched over the frames. The question is whether the seating thwarts were solid wood as in this picture or would they have been more like wicker? Here is a picture of two possibilities--one solid wood, one from an old piece of wicker I found. I suspect the wicker thwarts would not have been strong enough to provide structural strength.
