2,000-yr-old dugout canoe on display in northern Vietnam

The 10.8-meter-long, and 1.07-meter-wide boat was made from the whole body of a tree felled down at the age of 800, its owner Tran Trong Ha said, quoted scientists. 

The tree belongs to the Dipterocarpaceae family, often seen in Asian rain forests Ha added.

Ha bought the boat in 2012 from a local fisherman living by the Duong River, which flows through the northern province of Bac Ninh and Hanoi. The fisherman claimed to have discovered it in the river a few months earlier. 

Ha, who was then the head of a museum in Quang Ninh Province, intended to buy the boat for his museum. But other officials of the museum refused to pay for it, saying that it was not an artifact of the province.

Therefore, Ha decided to buy it himself, keeping the boat in his house. 

“
Radiocarbon dating indicates that the boat is around 2,000 years ago,” said Ha. “It belongs to the Dong Son Culture."

The over 2,000-year-old Poole Logboat, displayed in England, is now considered the oldest in the world. It is 10 meters long.

The dugout boat on display at a private house in the northern province of Quang Ninh. Photo credit: Lao Dong

The wooden boat is nearly intact after 2,000 years.

View from inside the dugout

The boat is 0.8 meter longer than the Poole Logboat, which is considered the oldest one of its kind in the world.