So much history lies just underneath our feet — thousands and thousands of years of human exploration, discovery, technology, tools, settlements, everything. It's all so close to the surface.
But I gotta say, even with everything down there, you don't ever really expect to find, well, a buried boat:
A team of researchers is investigating a medieval ship buried on the site of a pub in northwestern England. They hope to find out where it came from and exactly how old it is.
The boat is buried underneath the Railway Inn on the Wirral and an archaeological investigation is taking place later this month. Professor Steve Harding of the University of Nottingham will be analysing wood and environmental samples from the boat to help reveal accurate details about its origins.
Very cool stuff. But of course the immediate question comes to mind: How did they know there was a boat under there?
Well, it turns out they've known about the boat for about ninety years:
"The vessel was originally discovered in 1938 by workmen who partially exposed the vessel, but were told by their foreman to immediately cover it over again, Harding explains. "Fortunately one of the men made detailed notes and a sketch of it, showing a preserved vessel of clinker design (overlapping planks) – a design of boat building that originated in Scandinavia. It is of approximate length 20-30ft (6-9m), and from the sketch possibly an old transport vessel or fishing boat. It is also buried in waterlogged blue clay which is an ideal preservative as bugs can't grow and degrade the wood: there are very few archaeological vessels that have been found in such material."
Imagine finding an incredible archeological treasure and then re-burying it so you could build a bar on top of it.
Well, at least they made the sketch! You can see a copy of it in the University of Nottingham feature below:
Maybe it's just a run-of-the-mill fishing boat. Or it could be something of much more exciting origin:
"It is not impossible the vessel may have derived from the time the area was heavily settled by Norsemen, or if not the descendants of these people: an investigation we did jointly with the University of Leicester has shown a high proportion of Y-chromosomal DNA of Scandinavian origin in the admixture of people from old families (possessing surnames prior to 1600) in the area. But in all honesty we just don't know and are keeping an open mind."
