World's oldest sea-going boat to sail again - Dover team rebuilds Bronze Age boat with ancient tools

Daily Mail ^ | Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 | Rob Waugh

[SunkenCiv]

The world's oldest sea-going boat, the Dover Bronze Age Boat is to sail again 3500 years after it crossed the English Channel.

A new project, 'Boat 1550 BC' aims to rebuild the boat, which had lain hidden under the centre of Dover for 3,500 years until it was rediscovered in 1992 during the construction of an underpass.

The oak-built boat sailed across the Channel at a time when Stonehenge was still in use, and before Tutankhamun became ruler of Egypt.

The project aims to understand how people were able to cross the Channel in 1550 BC, using ancient boatbuilding techniques and Bronze Age tools to construct a half-size replica boat.

The boat will launch in the sea when it's completed in two and a half years time, and will be part of a touring exhibition which visit France, Belgium and the UK to mark the 20th anniversary of the boat's discovery.

The boat was located during the construction of an underpass and sparked several frantic days of rescue excavations to save it from destruction.

It was removed from the site in sections and rebuilt in the museum.

Canterbury Archaeological Trust Deputy Director, Peter Clark, said: 'I have been working towards this moment for more than ten years. It's very exciting. As the days and weeks go by we will learn so much about how our ancestors were able to build such a remarkable vessel.'

'We can only speculate about how often people crossed the channel and how close were the ties, but one thing is certain, this project will bring the modern communities in Northern France, Belgium and England just that little bit closer together.'

[SunkenCiv]

Full title: "World's oldest sea-going boat to sail again -- Dover team rebuilds Bronze Age boat with ancient tools to understand how people crossed the Channel in time of Stonehenge".

The team will use Bronze Age tools and ship-building techniques to reconstruct the Dover Bronze Age Boat, a vessel thought to have crossed the Channel in 1500BC

The half-size replica will take two years to construct

The world's oldest sea-going boat: it will take two and a half years to reconstruct in a half-size replica

The Dover Bronze Age boat on display in a museum. Researchers aim to find out how people crossed the channel in 1550BC

The boat was located during the construction of an underpass and sparked several frantic days of rescue excavations to save it from destruction

The researchers will reconstruct the boat using ancient techniques and Bronze Age tools to understand how people crossed the channel in the time of Stonehenge

[Cronos]

it probably was a common occurence to travel the channel — the body of the “archer” found at stonehenge signified that he travelled from present-day Austria or therabouts to Stonhenge at least twice in the period c 2000 BC

[NavyCanDo]

Wish my old Senior Chief was still alive to see this. I think he was a crewman aboard the original. That was sometime after the billet he had aboard the Ark with Captain Noah.

[Amberdawn]

Cool, I love it when people rebuild these boats.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Renfield. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I think the headline is misleacing, although I know why they did it — to captivate the casual reader. But, they are NOT rebuilding an ancient boat. They are COPYING an ancient boat and they are doing it to half scale. Quite different, I’d say.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Should be — misleacing=misleading

[SunkenCiv]

If it had been misleacing, they’d probably have to mis-bail it out. ;’)

Thanks aftr.

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[Bigg Red]

Fascinating stuff.

If they are sticking with using tools consistent with the period, I can just imagine the blisters and sore muscles.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cronos, good point.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Amberdawn, I wholeheartedly agree.

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[SunkenCiv]

It’ll be interesting to see, I can’t wait for the updates.

[Bigg Red]

It’s a shame that they are building a half replica. I guess it would just take too long to build it full scale.

Just how many Bronze Age men, do you suppose, would have been working on such a ship? How long would it have taken them?

[SunkenCiv]

Typically, elsewhere in the ancient world, big ships were the specialty of small outfits, basically one family or extended family, and they didn’t work from blueprints. Ships were built to size, but the needed materials (the wood had to be long enough and sound enough) had to be available. The whole group would work on it, everyone doing the same steps at the same time for the more repetitive tasks, under a small hierarchy of experienced builders.

When Alexander the Great decided to return to Persia from India, he ordered ships built on the Indus sufficient to carry his whole force, and the task was accomplished in six months — other than the fact that part of the force had to march along either side of the river due to insufficient space. Big Al’s plan was to deal with any attacks by coordinated responses on land and water, oh, and to sack anything that slammed the door in his face. On the way downriver, some ships may have been lost due to running aground and sinking, or were lost in battle.

He often fought against numerical superiority, but by the time his army basically voted against further conquest to the east, his army had probably reached one of its peaks, perhaps 150,000, plus the entourage of acquired wives and children. The largest force he ever had available was during his campaign in central Asia, HQed in Balkh — roughly 300,000 men, perhaps more, most of which had arrived during the winter in response to his call-ups.

[Bigg Red]

Thank you for that information,