Three remarkable Bronze Age log boats, preserved for over three millennia in a Cambridgeshire riverbed, are finally ready to meet the public following a painstaking 13-year conservation project.
A Discovery in the Peaty Silence
The incredible story began back in 2011 near Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, where a total of nine log boats from the Bronze and Iron Age were unearthed. The vessels were found on a silted-up riverbed at the Must Farm site, a location that offered the perfect peaty conditions for preservation.
Jacqueline Mooney, general manager of Flag Fen Archaeology Park, described the find poetically, noting the boats had lain "undisturbed for over 3,000 years, preserved in the peaty silence of time." She added that their new exhibition offers "a powerful reconnection with the people who once lived, worked and journeyed through this landscape."
The Meticulous Road to Preservation
The excavation, which took place in 2011 and 2012, was funded by the landowner, building products manufacturer Forterra, as a necessary step ahead of planned quarrying operations. Once recovered, the ancient craft faced a long journey to stability.
For the past 13 years, the boats have been kept in carefully controlled, climate-regulated conditions. Conservators used a specialised treatment involving a wax and water solution to slowly and gently stabilise the ancient wood, preventing it from deteriorating after its long submersion.
Ancient Craftsmanship Revealed
Log boats, as the name suggests, are simple but effective vessels crafted from a single tree trunk. Iona Robinson Zeki, an archaeological researcher at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, called the Must Farm collection an "amazing discovery."
"They reveal that these simple, yet supremely effective boats were used to navigate a fenland river for almost a millennium," she explained. "We can see, in their varied construction, how the qualities of different types and sizes of trees were used to make boats ranging from small, manoeuvrable canoes to long, stable punt-like vessels."
These boats were multi-purpose tools for their ancient owners. While they were used to lay fish traps, evidence suggests they also transported people, animals, and goods across the watery fenland landscape.
The three vessels selected for display showcase this variety:
- A 6.3-metre Middle Bronze Age boat made from oak, which shows intriguing signs of charring on its interior.
- A 2.2-metre fragment of another Middle Bronze Age oak boat, remarkable for containing an intricate ancient repair within its hull.
- A smaller 0.8-metre fragment from an Early Bronze Age vessel, uniquely crafted from field maple.
This long-awaited exhibition at Flag Fen Archaeology Park near Peterborough offers a rare and tangible link to Britain's distant past, allowing visitors to come face-to-face with craft that plied local waters a thousand years before the Romans arrived.
