The dugout canoe – THE boat of prehistory

Monday, August 10 to Sunday, August 16, 2026 A tall, wide tree trunk, a few axes made of stone or bronze, and a strong team—nothing more was needed to build a boat from the pile-dwelling period! Such wooden boats, also known as "dugouts" due to their material, are among the oldest watercraft in human history. They can be reliably traced back to at least 10,000 years ago, during the so-called Mesolithic period. With them, it was possible to navigate the rivers and lakes of Europe, catch fish, and transport goods safely over long distances. It is no wonder that dugouts were also of great importance in the subsequent Neolithic and Bronze Ages until 850 BC. Numerous finds in pile-dwelling settlements around Lake Constance confirm this. Thanks to the fantastic preservation of wood in the prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, experimental archaeologists like Wolfgang Lobisser and Erik Häußler can still create dugouts today, just as they did over 3,000 years ago. Witness the construction of a wooden boat over 10 meters long from prehistoric times in the pile dwellings of Unteruhldingen! Tip: In the DISCOVERER COURSE, you can try out the tools needed to build a dugout.