A Fourth Boat-Find at North Ferriby, Humberside

Abstract

The discovery is reported of a timber from North Ferriby here interpreted as a piece of boat-planking and therefore the fourth boat-find from that intertidal site. The implications of its radiocarbon age are discussed. Although only a small fragment, the find has some highly significant features and it is argued that it is a piece of a sheerstrake of a boat, conceivably of a late version of the Ferriby-type hitherto represented by the three examples dated to the second millennium B.C. On the strength of the arguments put forward the first author has incorporated key-features into the hypothetical design for a complete Ferriby boat recently developed in collaboration with J. F. Coates.