3,400-year-old Bronze Age log boat helped archaeologists uncover the River Trent

A 3,400-year-old Bronze Age log boat was found at Shardlow Quarry near Weston-upon-Trent, Derbyshire, in 1998, carved from a single oak tree.

The boat, about 8 metres long, was discovered during commercial gravel quarrying, which exposed ancient river deposits.

The find is featured in the new exhibition 'Prehistoric Lives in the Trent Valley' at the University of Nottingham Museum, curated by York Archaeology.

Archaeologists have monitored Shardlow quarry weekly since the late 1990s, revealing multiple log boats, timber structures, and buried river channels.

The River Trent's flooding and channel shifting over millennia buried and preserved organic material and artefacts under silt, sand, and gravel.