This
area of the gallery looks at the science and archaeology of the
Dover Boat project.
It has a number of interactive features including
microscopes and a video microscope to look at some of the environmental
evidence that the scientists working on the project studied.
Dating the Boat
The Dover Bronze Age Boat was discovered in a very
deep hole dug for roadworks. It was beneath remains of the
medieval town wall, and also part of a Roman wooden breakwater.
The archaeologists knew immediately that they had discovered something
very old.
To find a more accurate date of the boat, it was
subjected to radio-carbon dating - this is a scientific process
which measures the amount of a radioactive type of carbon in organic
objects. This dated the boat to around 1550BC.
Bronze Age Dover
The waterlogged environment that preserved the
wood of the boat for almost 3,600 years also preserved the remains
of many living things. These remains are valuable evidence for what
Dover was like in the Bronze Age.
Artist's impression of the creek in which the
Dover Boat was abandoned
This evidence contains things like
pollen grains, snail shells, fish bones and remains of insects.
By identifying the types of plants and animals that lived in Dover
in the Bronze Age, we can work out what the landscape and environment
was like.
An idea of what Bronze Age Dover looked like can
be pieced together. We know the boat was abandoned up a side creek
of a river.The valley floor was marshy along the course of the river
with grassland around it. On
higher ground, there could have been a small settlement where people
lived and kept animals.
This
area of the gallery looks at the science and archaeology of the
Dover Boat project.![[The boat was abandoned in a slow-moving creek]](graphics/z8boat.jpg)
On
higher ground, there could have been a small settlement where people
lived and kept animals.