Award Winning BBABB (Big Bronze Age Boat Build) Project!

We're incredibly pleased to say the Big Bronze Age Boat Build

The Project

Between 2022-2025, AncientCraft supported a volunteer-led project to create replica Bronze Age boats using ancient tools and techniques. This creative, hands-on initiative blended research, reconstruction, and public participation. Through experiential archaeology, James guided the volunteers, equipping them with skills to cast, haft and use authentic tools throughout the build. The volunteer’s creativity reached thousands, attracted national press, and left a lasting legacy of learning, leadership, and community pride.

The success of the project would not have been possible without the partnerships with Stanwick Lakes, Operation Phoenix, Boughton Estate, 118 Close Support Company REME, Northampton and Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU), funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and of course the amazing volunteers.

The BBABB team celebrating in front of the crowd that gathered on launch day to see if the boats would float!

How were the boats built?

There are hundreds of logboats or dugout canoes from the archaeological record in Britain and Ireland with examples dating from the Mesolithic to Middle Ages. With such a broad range of ages, styles and sizes to choose from, we wanted to use local evidence to provide the main inspiration for our work. The river Nene flows through Stanwick Lakes and continues its journey towards Peterborough and eventually The Wash. As the river runs past Peterborough it flows through the Flag Fen basin where in 2011 and 2012 eight Bronze Age boats were discovered and then excavated by Cambridge Archaeological Unit. These boats were once used to travel up and down a now silted up channel of the Nene river. These seems the most fitting examples to provide inspiration for the replica boats to be built at Stanwick Lakes.

The replica boats were made of lime trunks that came from a single tree from the nearby Boughton Estate. The tree trunks were actually upper trunks that grew from a single, wide, but sadly too short lower trunk. The whole tree came down in a spring storm and was generously cut and moved ready for transport by the estate. Tree species used for logboats include lime, pine, chestnut and elm. However the most commonly represented species is oak. This may be down to the rot-resistant characteristics of oak, the form to which the trees grow, but also a greater representation archaeologically due to the aforementioned resistance to rotting.

With the three trunks available, it was decided three methods of construction should be employed so that the methods could be compared. The three methods included burning out and scraping, grooving and splitting out and finally completely chipping out. There is evidence for all three methods both ethnographically and archaeologically. The burning out method involved controlled fires to burn down into the log. After a period of burning the charred areas would be scraped or chipped away. The burning would be controlled with wet clay to prevent it burning in the wrong places. The second method involved cutting grooves with axes and chisels across the length of the log at regular intervals and two long grooves that marked the insides of the hull. Wedges would then be used to split off thick pieces of wood up to each groove. This would be repeated until the vessel neared completion at which point it would be finished and refined with chisels, gouges and adzes. The final method involved completely chipping out the hollow of the vessel, chip by chip.

The tools used in the build would be those people had access to in the Bronze Age. Axes, adzes and chisels had bronze blades, these would used alongside wooden wedges, blocks and levers. Clay was used to control the burnout and to plug holes as the lime timber seasoned.

Lime is one of softer 'hardwoods' which meant the work hardened bronze tools that had been made by the volunteer team worked very effectively. Out of the three methods, the groove and split method was the fastest. However, if the team had worked with a harder timber, the burning method would have probably been more effective as it would have reduced tool damage and wear. The 'chip by chip' method was relatively effective, but was not as efficient as the groove and split technique. By having the three methods in action for visitors to watch, it provided easy and natural conversation opportunities. Some visitors commented on the progress they witnessed each week, others had seen similar techniques during their time in another part of the world. These conversations allowed visitors to feel like they were a part of the project and almost definitely increased the number of people watching at the grand launch event.

There were plenty of interesting observations that came out of the build. Many of these could be explored further via experimental archaeology (this project is an example of experiential archaeology as it was not conducted under test conditions with controlled variables). Starting with the timber itself, we had chosen lime partly for the availability and cost, but also because oak is significantly heavier. This would have meant moving the boats around for events and open days could have been rather challenging. It is assumed that once logboats were finished in prehistory, they rarely were taken fully out of the water. This was probably partly to maintain consistent moisture through the timber (which would have prevented splitting) and because of their weight. When they were not in use, they probably would have been partially pulled up onto an bank or shallow shoreline or tied to a jetty. If they were not required for a long period of time, they may have even been intentionally sunk.

While the chipped out boat was solid at both ends, the burned out and split out boat were left solid only at the bow. In other words, the bow was tapered before the trunk was hollowed and remained part of the vessel. The stern was split through, leaving it open. If you looked at it from the back you would see the section of the hull like a "C" on it's side. Our plan for this was to copy examples from Must Farm which had a transom board fitted. The possible advantage of this method was reduced overall weight of the vessel and faster production as chunks of wood could be split through the open stern (the pre-cut grooves prevented the splits running too far). Using the transom boards also allowed us to test their function in a working boat, would they be worth the effort? Sealing the join between hull and board was done with lake clay (as it was done at Must Farm). After initial maintenance and testing, no leaks were found. A further consideration was that if we needed to leave the boats unattended, we could remove the board which would prevent another Bronze Age person taking the boat without permission!

The plan was to utilise a modular system with the boats. They could either be used individually or brought together as catamarans. There is plenty of archaeological evidence for this system and it appears some hulls were made as outriggers rather than hulls you could sit in (as they were too narrow). Unsurprisingly a catamaran was far more stable than a single hull, but how many people could it carry? Impressively the double hull could comfortably carry 4-5 and the triple hull 5-6! It is very likely such craft were piloted by only a couple of people using paddles or quant (also known as a punting pole). A possible quant was found at Must Farm in the form of a pole measuring over 3 metres in length. With two pilots on a double hulled vessel, it's comfortable cargo capacity could easily be over 200kg.

The tools used in the build were clearly a key component. Some were made by the volunteers, while James also provided a selection of axes, adzes and chisels. We hoped to identify how some tools were better suited to certain stages of the build or how some tools could suit multi-purpose roles. At the beginning of the build, long-handled axes were larger socketed axe heads were well-suited at removing bark and shaping the outside of the hull. They were also the best tools for starting the grooves into the groove and split vessel. Once the boat builders moved onto digging out the hulls, the axes were joined by the long-handled adzes to continue removing large chunks of lime wood. As the build reached the latter stages of rough digging and shaping the axes became less useful in favour of the long-handles and short-handled adzes with smaller blades. As the team reached the finishing stages the small adzes, chisels and gouges were most frequently used. This is perhaps unsurprising considering most woodworkers and carpenters have a range of tools sizes. However it was interesting to note how some axe or adze blades were better suited to particular tasks. The wide, convex socketed adzes and axes produced a shallow scoop into the wood. They could provided a finer finish when required at the latter stages. The narrow-bladed adzes with only a gently curving convex edge could cut very deeply and allow progress in the main digging phases to accelerate.

Some tools were used outside of their expected function. A good example was near the start of the build when axes were used to create the initial split for the wooden wedges. The blade was held at the split point and the back of the axe was struck repeatedly with wooden mallets. The bruising on the back of the wooden handle was quite obvious and may show up in archaeological examples.

Interestingly, the houses at Must Farm appear to contain a consistent variety of tools. Large socketed axes with long handles, smaller axe or adzes with convex edges as well as chisels and gouges. It's important to note that the boats found at Must Farm were not all associated with the pile dwelling settlement, some are from earlier parts of the Bronze Age. However some probably were and the people that lived there appear to have owned tools to create such vessels themselves.

At the beginning of the project, we had hoped to create a scene for visitors that appeared to be a Bronze Age boat yard in action. Between the sights of people wearing Bronze Age clothing wielding bronze tools, the chatter and excitement that built up to the launch itself, it was a feast for the senses that surpassed our expectations. The volunteers and staff at Stanwick Lakes had really done themselves proud!

You can watch the project video produced by Em here:

Nene Valley 5,000: The Wider Picture

Em capturing a snipped of the Guilds hours of spinning.

Another fantastic component of the wider project involved the recreation of Iron Age clothing, based on surviving textiles buried with the 'Huldremose Woman'. A team from the Northants Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers came together to recreate the vibrant colours and techniques of Iron Age textile production. The Guild used plants grown in the Heritage Garden at Stanwick Lakes for natural dyes and hand-prepared 1,300 metres of wool, woven into a historically accurate shawl and skirt.

Watch the journey from plant to clothing here:

Over 10,000 years of history lay beneath our feet at Stanwick Lakes, some of which was revealed through decades of archaeological work. The site’s national significance first came to light during large-scale rescue excavations in the 1980s, prior to gravel quarrying—a discovery that reshaped how we understand this part of the country.

To find out more about Stanwicks heritage and the other components of the project, including the creating of a replica round house and the restoration of a Bronze Age barrow, you can watch the project video here: