Image: The Ferriby Boats - geograph.org.uk - 442080

Description: The Ferriby Boats, North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. A plaque on this boat-shaped memorial on the Humber bank near North Ferriby reads: "This memorial to Ted Wright 1918-2001 depicts the outline of the oldest known boat in Europe built and sailed from this foreshore 4000 years ago". Ted Wright and his brother Bill discovered the first of the Bronze Age boats in 1937 and Ted found another about 60 yards upstream on leaving the army in 1940. In 1963 further excavations uncovered part of a third boat next to the first. The boats are generally referred to as Ferriby 1, 2 and 3 and their remains are now housed in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Presumably the memorial in the picture is designed to show the size of one of the boats but to me it is too much like other installations showing the exact location of the discovery, which is misleading as the boats were dug up from the estuary mud. The notice board next to the memorial refers to a boat plank from Caldicott, Gwent being some 300 years older than the Ferriby boats but the information is out of date. In March 2001 information was released which dated the Gwent boat at 1880-1690 BC, Ferriby 1 at 1880-1680 BC, Ferriby 2 at 1940-1720 BC and Ferriby 3 at 2030-1780 BC. http://www.ferribyboats.co.uk/dating/index.html Ted Wright, MBE, amateur archaeologist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries who discovered the Ferriby boats was born on June 21, 1918. He died on May 18 2001 aged 83.
Title: The Ferriby Boats - geograph.org.uk - 442080
Credit: From geograph.org.uk
Author: Paul Glazzard
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