Eight sleek Bronze Age log boats that would fit right in at the Boat Race emerge from a silted up river thousands of years after they were sunk

The boats, the largest of them 28 feet long, are thought to have been used for ferrying cargo and passengers in the Fens some 3,500 years ago

Now being preserved for future study and as a tourist attraction

Log boats from the Bronze Age have been found before, but never have so many been found in the same place

Each of the boats was hewn from a single tree trunk, six of them oaks, one alder and one lime

The log boats resemble the elegant vessels used in the annual Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities



Eight amazingly preserved log boats have been hailed as ‘more important than the Mary Rose’ after being dug up from a silted-up river.

The boats, the largest of them 28 feet (8.5m) long, are thought to have been used for ferrying cargo and passengers in the Fens some 3,500 years ago.

They are now being preserved for future study and as a tourist attraction using the same conservation techniques that saved the Mary Rose from falling apart when raised from the Solent.

Ian Panter, of the York Archaological Trust and the log project's conservationist, inspects one of the eight Bronze Age log boats dug out of the ground at a quarry near Peterborough. The vessels, thought to be up to 3,500-years-old would most likely have been used to transport people and cargo

The boats resemble those used during the annual Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities.



Although, the current international class eights race boats are more than twice the length of those found in Peterborough - at 19.9m long.

Log boats from the Bronze Age have been found before but never have so many been found in the same place.

‘This is amazingly significant,’ Ian Panter, of the York Archaeological Trust and the log project’s conservationist, told MailOnline.



‘You normally get just the one boat. Eight in one spot is phenomenal.

‘What’s more, they were excavated under controlled archaeological conditions. Normally you get them when there’s pipe-laying going on, but we have been able give them the full works.

‘In terms of significance it’s probably even bigger than the Mary Rose.’

One of the recovered log boats was decorated with a criss-cross pattern on both the inside and the outside of the vessel. It is uncertain whether there was any particular significance to the decoration or if the owner simply wanted to personalise it

Archaeologists said they provide an extraordinary window not just into boat-building and woodwork techniques of the Bronze Age, but how human ingenuity overcame a changing environment.

About 4,000 years ago rising sea levels caused wide areas of previously dry the land near Peterborough and further east to be flooded and turn into wetland.

People living in the region faced a transformed landscape but, archaeologists said, the boats and other artifacts found at Must Farm and the surrounding area demonstrate they quickly adapted.

The log boats discovered in Peterborough were a similar elegant shape to those used during the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. The log boats are around 8.5m long whereas the international class eights boats are more than double this length, at 19.9m. This gives archaeologists clues as to how many people could sit in the log boat compared to modern-day vessels

Each of the boats was hewn from a single tree trunk, six of them oaks, one alder and one lime.

And it is clear from the repair work and patches that have been found on each of the vessels that they were greatly valued by their owners. ‘They have all been used for a long time,’ said Mr Panter.

‘They have patches. One has a clay lining which was added to make it watertight. One or two have had plugs of wood put in.’

The timbers were kept wet before archaeologists moved the boats from the mud to a purpose-built facility. Techniques pioneered on the Mary Rose Tudor warship are being employed to preserve the eight log boats.

One of them was decorated with a pattern of crosses on the inside and outside of the log, but the significance is unclear.

Quite why each of them ended up at the bottom of an old course and now silted up course of the River Nene remains a mystery.

It appears that they were all, separately, sunk deliberately over a period of about 600 years when the transom board from the stern was removed.

Because of the way the boats were made, they had to have a transom fitted at one end to replace wood that would have rotted. All eight have been found with a slot for the transom board.

‘All the transom boards have been removed and we didn’t find them. That suggests they have been sunk intentionally,’ said Mr Panter.

It is the first time so many Bronze Age log boats have been found so close together. Usually log boats are found singly but at Much Farm there were eight, and they were all painstakingly excavated by archaeologists

‘They have all been found at different depths within the channel. Each one has been sunk at a different time – it wasn’t a single episode.’

They could have been sunk as votive offerings to the gods or spirits, just as metal objects including swords and spears were in the same river.

Another theory is that they were sunk for the winter season to prevent them drying out and splitting, before being somehow forgotten or lost.

Or it could simply have been that the owner obtained a new vessel and decided it was time to get rid of the old one.

The smallest of the eight boats is about 11.5 feet (3.5m) long and little more than a foot wide (30-40cm), while the largest is 28 feet long and about 2.5 feet (75cm) wide.

The eight Bronze Age boats have been moved to a purpose-built facility where they will be conserved. Over the two-year project they will be sprayed with a special wax that will preserve the timbers

Mr Panter said all were likely to have been used to ferry passengers and cargo, with the largest able to transport about 15 people in one go . There are even indications that the 28-foot vessel was cut down from an even bigger boat.

It remains unclear how they were propelled but it is most likely that paddles were used, though none have been found.

Last week it was reported that The National Trust has recreated a 2,300-year-old Iron Age log boat hand-carved from a tree trunk.

More than 200 people helped fashion the one-tonne log boat over a three-week period from a section of fallen 80ft oak tree.

Emma Turvey, a conservation technician, inspects one of the boats in cold storage. The boats, which can be viewed through glass panels by the public, has slots for transom boards and some of them had carrying handles

The 15ft vessel is a scaled down copy of a 35ft Iron Age log boat discovered at the bottom of Poole Harbour almost 50 years ago.

The original boat, discovered in 1964, was discovered after routine dredging work but it is now only display at Poole Museum.

Visitors to Brownsea Island, the largest of eight islands in Poole Harbour, helped shape the flat-fronted boat using an adze, an ancient axe-like tool used for wood carving.

The team restoring the Bronze Age log boat believe the settlement was located about a third of a mile from where the eight log boats were found and other artifacts in the area include ceramics, tools, glass beads and eel traps were also located.

Last week it was reported that the National Trust has constructed a 2,300-year-old Celtic log boat over the course of three weeks in tribute to the one discovered in Poole harbour in 1964

‘It’s telling us quite a lot about woodworking in the Bronze Age,' said Mr Panter.

‘I think we are looking at something which certainly from the construction of the vessels and the way they have been maintained, it was quite an advanced technology.

REMNANTS OF THE FLAG FEN LANDSCAPE

The eight log boats are just some of the relics that are associated with the Flag Fen landscape in the Bronze Age. About 4000-years-ago sea level rises created a wetland and the people living there had to adapt to a new way of life. Among the artefacts are the remains of a wooden causeway about 3,350-years old that is considered to be as significant as Stonehenge. The causeway is about the size of Wembley Stadium and was constructed over 400 years. On a neighbouring site was discovered the oldest knwon wheel in England and one of the most important collections of Bronze Age swords and dirks.

‘They didn’t just stand in the water trying to fish. They knew how to trap them and were making ceramics and glass.’

The boats were discovered in 2011 at Must Farm clay quarry which supplies the brick-making industry.

They have now been moved to a refrigerated unit at Flag Fen, near Peterborough, where they are being sprayed with a specialised wax, polyethylene glycol, to protect the timber and where they can be viewed by the public.

Mr Panter added: 'To under take the conservation with the public able to view it and watch the process develop over the next few years is a great opportunity.

'We're keeping the boats wet and cold to help keep everything as it is - so there's no biological activity to digest through the timber - to reduce decay of the wood.'

Mark Knight from Cambridge Archaeological Unit, one of Britain’s leading prehistoric and wetland field archaeologists, said: ‘It is tremendously important that the Must Farm boats were brought to Flag Fen, because they are part of the same story.