14 DAY TRIAL // A group of fishermen in Bulgaria are responsible for an important archaeological discovery. Just recently, they announced that, while trailing their fishing nets along the bottom of the Black Sea, searching for their daily catch, they came across what appeared to be an ancient canoe, possibly dating back to the prehistoric ages. This is the 4th similar find in the offshore regions of Bulgaria, all of which were recovered in very good condition, mainly due to the particularities of the sea's waters.
The typical canoe is a small, manned, narrow boat, with pointed ends. It regularly has no sails, and it is fit for a single person, who uses paddling for achieving motion along the water surface. This type of boat is among the most ancient ones developed by humans, with the oldest one ever found having been recovered in Pesse, in the Netherlands, and whose construction has been dated to sometimes between 8200 and 7600 BC.
"The dugout is 8.5 feet [2.6 meters] long and 27.5 inches [0.7 meters] wide, and it is made most probably of oak," shared of the current finding Dimitar Nedkov, chief of the Archaeological Museum in the Bulgarian port city of Sozopol for the Associated Press, as cited by MSNBC. The fishermen stumbled upon it some 15 miles (24 km) off the Bulgarian coast.
The Black Sea is the largest basin in the world whose water layers do not mix, so the oxygen-receiving surface layer doesn't blend with the underlying ones. This causes for 90% of the Black Sea waters to be anoxic (deprived of oxygen), saving the wooden remains from the negative effect of oxidation, and also protecting them from sustaining damage from worms.
"Nowhere else can you find similar dugouts, as well as any kind of wooden vessels over 300 years old, because water rots the wood away," explained Dimitrov. "In the Black Sea, however, there is dissolved hydrogen sulfide below a certain depth, which preserves all organic materials."