Welcome to The Eurybia Project!

The Eurybia project is the new and exciting boat building project being undertaken this summer at Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire. The project aims to use Experimental Archaeology to investigate the construction methods of prehistoric log boats.

At the end of the project we hope to have two complete log boats that have been built using different methods and tools that would have been available to Prehistoric man. The two boats are The Eurybia and The Epimetheus.

The Eurybia: This is the big one! Measuring around 7.5m in length this pine tree will make the largest of the two boats. The Eurybia will be the testing ground for a number of different building techniques including the use of hot flints to burn the inside of the boat and the splitting of the wood with wedges to hollow out the log. The experiment will also include investigations into the use wear on Mesolithic Tranchet Axes (part of a research project from the Archaeology department at The University of York).

The parent log of the Eurybia ready for work to begin.

The Epimetheus: A smaller pine log measuring only 3.5m in length the Epimetheus will be used to investigate the choice of log for boat building by Prehistoric man. The tree was felled due to a Cauliflower Fungus growing at its base that has caused the tree to rot from the inside out. This meant that the tree was unsafe and likely to fall down in the next gale. We are also testing whether this rot means that the hollowing out of the log will be a lot easier. The Epimetheus will be being built with the help of Help for Heroes Recover Centre, Tedworth House, Wiltshire.

Follow our progress through our blog, Facebook page (www.facebook.com/theeurybiaproject), Instagram (@wattsatbutser) and Twitter (@EurybiaProject)