Dugouts, boats and history

The earliest boats are thought to have been dugouts, and the oldest boats found by archaeological excavation date from around 7,000–10,000 years ago. A 7,000-year-old seagoing reed boat has been found in Kuwait. Boats were used between 4000 and 3000 BC in Sumer, ancient Egypt, and in the Indian Ocean. Also, the Pesse canoe, found in the Netherlands, is a dugout made from the hollowed tree trunk of a Pinus sylvestris that was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. According to archaeological findings, dugouts were the earliest boats used by travelers as far back as the Neolithic Stone Age about 10,000 years ago. These dugouts resembled what we now know as canoes, and were made with the hollowed-out trunk of a tree.

A boat is designed to float on water and can be used for fishing, travel, transportation, military use, recreation, sports, and rescue operations. Throughout history, they have been an important method of transportation and exploration. The Galilee Boat is historically important to Jews as an example of the type of boat used by their ancestors in the 1st century CE for both fishing and transportation across the lake.