The Oldest Neolithic Boats in the Mediterranean: Rediscovered

The Neolithic: Ancient Sea Farers

The Neolithic saw the spreading of farming communities across Europe and northern Africa. Some of the first permanent settlers appeared in the Near East, around 11,000 years ago in places such as Cyprus and across the Levant, before gradually colonizing the entirety of Mediterranean.

This type of colonization requires rapid and well structured movement of people and supplies, as well as communication to allow for trade of local resources. Advanced sea faring technologies would be required to make these large number of trips in a safe and efficient. The early Neolithic sees evidence of large scale sea faring, this would be almost impossible without knowledge of maritime routes and technology developed in earlier periods.

Boats during the Neolithic were usually canoes carved from a single large tree trunk. Some boats discovered are small, around 3 meters long (7920 - 6470 BC at Pesse), fitting only a single passenger, while others reach up to 10 meters in length (4300 - 4100 BC at Tybrind Vig). Canoes carved from single tree trunks were prevalent in the Neolithic period. Many were initially cut before fire was used to aid in hollowing out the wood.

The Settlement of La Marmotta

La Marmotta is a unique Neolithic lakeshore village discovered under Lake Bracciano near Rome. First excavated between 1989-2009, it dates back to around 5700-5200 BC. Due to waterlogged conditions, the site contains exceptionally well-preserved organic remains including the foundations of rectangular wooden houses, piles, artifacts made of wood and fibers, and most notably, the remains of five dugout canoes.

The inhabitants of La Marmotta were early farmers who grew domestic crops like cereals and legumes and raised sheep, cattle, and pigs. Archeobotanical remains also show they foraged wild fruit and nuts and collected plants for textiles, oil, dyes and medicine. But it's the evidence for advanced carpentry and boat-building that makes this settlement so remarkable for its time.

The Discovery and Rediscovery of the Boats

Excavation of Canoe 5: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299765

The first of the La Marmotta canoes, dubbed "La Marmotta 1", was discovered in the 1990s. At 10.43 meters long and 1 meter wide, it was described then as the oldest known boat in the Mediterranean. However, it's only recently that all five canoes have been dated using advanced radiocarbon methods.

The results, published in 2024 [1], show the canoes range in age from 5620 to 5045 BC, making them definitively the oldest known watercraft in the region. Notably, they span usage over only about 500 years, suggesting the knowledge to build them was passed down over a small number of generations.

In addition to the boats themselves, associated artifacts like oars, a possible bollard to tie up a boat, and enigmatic "mushroom-shaped" wooden pieces with holes (perhaps used to secure sails or outriggers) hint at a whole suite of nautical technology beyond what was previously imagined for this early date.

How the Ancient Boats were Made

So how did the Neolithic builders construct these sophisticated canoes? The five boats were each made from a single tree trunk, hollowed out to create a dugout hull. Different species were chosen, including oak, alder, beech and poplar, suggesting the builders had knowledge of the properties of various woods.

Toolmarks on the boats show they were shaped with polished stone adzes and axes. The interior was then hollowed out further by a controlled burning technique. Some of the canoes had additional carved elements to reinforce and stabilize the hull. The largest canoe, La Marmotta 1, measures an impressive 10.43 meters long and over 1 meter wide. Interestingly, this size seems excessively large for the small Lake Bracciano. Researchers believe the boats were also used to navigate the nearby Arrone River and even out on the sea, which was likely done in short island-hopping or coastal journeys.

Amazingly, a reconstruction of La Marmotta 1, built in 2008, was successfully sailed by a Czech team over 800 km around the Mediterranean coasts from Italy to Portugal, proving the seaworthiness and capability of these ancient designs. A crew of 8-10 was able to achieve speeds of around 50 km per day.

What this Means for the first Sea Farers of Cyprus

The original settlers of Cyprus predate these discoveries by several thousand years - however the techniques and types of boats found at La Marmotta give us a glimpse into the seafaring technology that could have been used by these early colonizers.

If you'd like to find out more about these original settlers of Cyprus and their pottery, you can read our article on Ancient Cypriot Extinction.

Although Cyprus is one of the more accessible Mediterranean islands, it still required a multi-day open water crossing of 70 km to reach, a formidable journey for the time. The fact that not just humans but also large livestock were transported strongly suggests large, sturdy boats similar to those at La Marmotta were used. Research on simulating these voyages has shown that these trips were feasible but difficult.

And like the Neolithic Italians, the early Cypriots would have accumulated generations of knowledge and skill before attempting the trip to Cyprus. The boats used were likely the product of hundreds if not thousands of years of technological development.

Conclusion

As the oldest known boats in the Mediterranean, the La Marmotta canoes provide an incredible window into the skill, ambition and technological advancement of Neolithic seafarers. Far from primitive, these farmers had a well-developed tradition of woodworking that allowed them to construct dugout canoes over 10 meters long, capable of navigating rivers and even the open sea.

While the La Marmotta site dates to 5700 BC onwards, the boat-building methods used there were likely developed much earlier, and were almost certainly the same types of techniques used by the pre-pottery Neolithic voyagers who first settled Cyprus around 11,000 years ago. Although no boats from this period have yet been found on the island, the La Marmotta canoes offer compelling hints as to how these ambitious journeys were undertaken.

As research continues on the La Marmotta artifacts and other submerged sites around the Mediterranean, our understanding of the origins of seafaring in the region continues to be pushed back in time. It's becoming clear that the urge to explore new frontiers and expand to new territories is as old as the Neolithic revolution itself. For the first Cypriots, that meant having the courage and skill to build boats, pack up their families and livestock, and set out to sea for new horizons.