The Dover Bronze Age Boat
The Discovery
On the morning of 28th September,
Keith Parfitt, Project Field Director for Canterbury Archaeological
trust, and Dr. Martin Bates, of the Geoarchaeological Service
Facility (G.S.F.) of the Institute of Archaeology in London, were
working in a particularly deep (6 metre) waterlogged hole at the
end of Bench Street, Dover, where a storm water pump for an
underpass was to be sited. It was one of the deepest holes ever to
be dug in the town centre. The hole had already produced parts of
Dover's medieval town wall, supported on timber piles, and a
section of a massively constructed Roman harbour wall. Dr. Bates
had been particularly pleased to be able to collect samples of
ancient valley sediments containing prehistoric plant and animal
remains from such a depth.
Work was pretty well finished
and a break for lunch imminent when Keith Parfitt became intrigued
by an odd looking piece of wood which had been revealed earlier by
a mechanical excavator. They were joined by the third team member,
Barry Corke.
'We continued cleaning the
exposed wood; clearly the machine had cut through an extensive
timber structure : it could only be a boat. The situation became
critical as the workmen returned from lunch ready to resume their
excavation': Keith Parfitt
Senior staff representing the
consulting engineers, Mott MacDonald, and contractors, Norwest
Holst, and Paul Bennet, Director of C.A.T. were called and
construction work was temporarily halted for the day to allow an
initial assessment of the find. It had been 55 years since a
comparable discovery of a well preserved prehistoric boat had been
made in North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, and after discovery that
vessel had all but disintegrated due to undeveloped conservation
techniques.