The world’s oldest sea-going boat, the Dover Bronze Age Boat is to sail again 3,500 years after it crossed the English Channel, the Daily Mail reported.
The project, “Boat 1550 BC” aims to rebuild the boat, which had lain hidden under the centre of Dover, a town and major ferry port in the county of Kent, for 3,500 years until it was rediscovered in 1992 during the construction of an underpass.
The oak-built boat sailed across the Channel at a time when Stonehenge was still in use, and before Tutankhamun became ruler of Egypt.
The project aims to understand how people were able to cross the Channel in 1,550 BC, using ancient boat-building techniques and Bronze Age tools to construct a half-size replica boat.
The boat will be launched in the sea when it is completed in two and a half years time, and will be part of a touring exhibition which will visit France, Belgium and Britain to mark the 20th anniversary of the boat’s discovery, the Mail said Tuesday.