Hanson Log Boat

Hanson Log Boat
The Hanson Log Boat displayed in Derby Museum and Art Gallery
MaterialWood
SizeLength: 10 m (390 in)
Createdc. 1500 BC
Discovered1998
Shardlow, England, United Kingdom
Present locationDerby Museum, Derby

The Hanson Log Boat was a Bronze Age dugout boat found in a gravel pit in Shardlow in Derbyshire. The log boat is now in Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

Discovery and preservation

The log boat was discovered at the Hanson gravel pit in Shardlow, a village south of Derby, in 1998, as part of an archaeological watching brief during quarrying operations at the site.[1] The boat was almost complete but was damaged slightly by the quarry machinery before its importance was identified.

The boat had to be sawn into small sections so that it could be transported and conserved because it was so heavy. Much of the weight was due to the boat's waterlogged condition which had preserved the wood and kept it from rotting. The wood was slowly dried at the York Archaeological Trust after it had been immersed for 18 months in polyethylene glycol, a chemical which penetrated the wood and provided strength.[2]

The boat's conservation was completed at a cost of £119,000 and the object is now on display at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

Description

The boat was dated to 3,500 bp, which, at 1500 BC, is in the Middle Bronze Age, making it around the same age as the Dover Bronze Age Boat and somewhat younger than the Ferriby Boats from Yorkshire. It is made of a single dug-out oak tree trunk.

Unusually, the boat still had a cargo of Bromsgrove sandstone which had been quarried at Kings Mills nearby. The stone is presumed to have been destined for strengthening a causeway across the River Trent.[2][3]

Second log boat

A second log boat was also discovered at the quarry five years later but it was reinterred in order that it could be preserved.[4]

Other finds from Shardlow

Decorative spearhead of Irish design found at Shardlow, thought to be of a design influenced by Irish art

The display at Derby Museum also includes metal finds that were also found during quarrying at Shardlow. The items mostly date from the Middle Bronze Age and were usually found by metal detectors on the quarries conveyor belts although in one case the artefact was identified by a customer of a bag of sand, and it was possible to trace the supply chain back to Shardlow quarry. The number of finds of axes and broken rapiers is thought to be due to religious offerings where valuable items were thrown into the water.[5]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hanson Log Boat.
  1. ^ Knight, David; Viner, Blaise (2007). "Making Archaeology Matter:Quarrying and Archaeology in the Trent Valley" (PDF). yorkarchaeology.co.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  2. ^ a b 1001 objects to inspire Archived 17 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine derbymuseums.org, accessed 21 April 2013
  3. ^ "Tale of the Bronze Age barge sunk in Trent". British Archaeology. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  4. ^ Second log boat found near Derby, StonePages.com, citing Derby Evening Telegraph on 24 November 2003 accessed May 2011
  5. ^ Labels at Derby Museum, read June 2011

52°52′N 1°22′W / 52.86°N 1.37°W / 52.86; -1.37