We continue up the coast of Western Europe, from Spain, Portugal and France across the Channel to Dover. We learn of the perfectly preserved remains of a prehistoric ship, the Dover bronze ship, unearthed in southern England in 1992. The oaks that had made it had been cut down in around 1500 BC. This boat was sailing long before Tutankhamun ruled in Egypt and is one of the oldest found in the world. However, there is a stark comparison between the Dover boat, which had no rudder, mast or sails, and the sophisticated ocean-going Minoan craft depicted in the Akrotiri frescoes.
Further reading:
The Langdon Bay hoard: http://www.dover.gov.uk/museum/bronze_age_boat/gallery/bronze_age_trade.aspx
The Dover Bronze Age boat:
http://www.doverdc.co.uk/museum/bronze_age_boat.aspx
http://www.archaeology.co.uk/the-timeline-of-britain/the-dover-bronze-age-boat.htm
Edward Wright, in The Dover Boat, ed. Peter Clark, p. 261, English Heritage, 2004
