Pre-historic vessel provides clue to sea level change

29 July 2009

One of Britain's most important Iron Age finds, discovered 25 years ago today, could help us understand more about climate change according to Dr Peter Halkon from the University of Hull.

Parts of the well-preserved 12.5m vessel were recognised by Dr Halkon, a lecturer in Archaeology in the History Department at the University of Hull and Martin Millett, Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.  The logboat was discovered by chance during drainage operations in the summer of 1984, on a farm that had belonged to Dr Halkon's father in Hasholme, East Yorkshire. It turned out to be the largest surviving example of its kind in Britain.

Tree-ring dating showed that the oak from which the boat was made was cut down between 321 - 277 BC. The boat sank in what was once a tidal estuarine inlet in the River Humber.  This large inlet was created by a rapid rise of over a metre sometime between 800 and 500 BC, which transformed a low-lying area of woodland into open water.

The study of the boat and its landscape is directly relevant today as we face another period of rising sea levels and climate change.

Dr Halkon explains: "The boat was used to transport people and good around this part of East Yorkshire. It contained a cargo of beef and timber when it sank. The area is now farmland, but it was once an offshoot of the River Humber with the drier land populated with small farming settlements."

Dr Halkon points out that understanding how the landscape looked then, helps to determine how it might change in the fututre.

"Throughout time there has been a cycle of global warming and cooling and associated variations in sea level. Two thousand years ago this East Yorkshire  farmland was under water as part of the Humber estuary. The present rise in global sea levels may mean that the landscape is reverting to the way it was in the Iron Age. This is a natural cycle - although according to most scientists, human intervention is undoubtedly exacerbating the pattern."

As well as improving understanding of landscape change, the vessel has significantly enhanced our knowledge of the development of boat building, Excavation and analysis showed that the boat had been hewn from a huge oak tree, with sophisticated joinery at both prow and stern. Dr Halkon says: "The size of the vessel and its decorative elements suggest that it was probably a high-status vessel, perhaps belonging to the people who ran the iron industry in the region, one of Britain's largest prehistoric centres for iron production."

After an excavation, the boat was lifted to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich for further research and then to Hull where it can be seen at the Hull and East Riding Museum.

A website detailing the excavation of the boat and the large-scale and ongoing landscape archaeology behind the project has been created and has received a number of national awards. The site includes interactive maps from each period from Stone Age to Roman virtual 'guides' and themes such as food, clothing and shelter.  There are video clips from excavations and virtual 'fly-through' reconstructions.

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