Bronze Age log boats discovered in silted-up creek to go on display

Three Bronze Age log boats which were preserved on the riverbed of a silted-up creek for more than 3,000 years are to go on display following a conservation project.

A log boat is a simple vessel made by hollowing out a single tree trunk, and some of these boats were used to lay fish traps.

Nine log boats, from the Bronze and Iron Age, were discovered near Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire in 2011, and they have since been preserved in climate-controlled conditions using a specialised wax and water solution.

Three of the vessels, found at Must Farm, are to be displayed at Flag Fen Archaeology Park near Peterborough following a 13-year conservation project.

Jacqueline Mooney, general manager of Flag Fen Archaeology Park, said: “The Must Farm boats have lain undisturbed for over 3,000 years, preserved in the peaty silence of time.

“Now, through our new exhibition, they emerge to tell their story.

“This is more than an archaeological display — it’s a powerful reconnection with the people who once lived, worked and journeyed through this landscape.”

The excavation of the log boats in 2011 and 2012 was funded by landowner Forterra, a manufacturer of building products, in advance of quarrying operations.

Iona Robinson Zeki, archaeological researcher at Cambridge Archaeological Unit, said: “The Must Farm log boats are an amazing discovery: they reveal that these simple, yet supremely effective boats were used to navigate a fenland river for almost a millennium.

“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 vessels were used to lay fish traps but also to transport people potentially alongside animals and materials.”

The log boats to go on display are a Middle Bronze Age 6.3m oak vessel, which has areas of charring inside; a 2.2m fragment of a Middle Bronze Age oak boat featuring an intricate repair within the hull; and a 0.8m fragment of an Early Bronze Age boat made of field maple.