Specialists have recovered a 930-year-old canoe belonging to a Native American tribe from a North Carolina lake, with their incredible discovery captured on video.
The nearly millennium-old Native American canoe was fished out on Wednesday, by the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology and the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe.
The boat was originally stumbled upon by a group of 13-year-old boys in 2021, according to local media reports, with authorities notified and its location marked for it to be safely removed.
Now, two years later, video shows the moment it was lifted from the shallow waters by a group of divers, from under what appears to be a wooden deck.
A group of over a dozen divers and volunteers was needed to get the enormous 28-foot-long canoe out of the lake’s waters.
A nearly millennium-old Native American canoe was fished out of a North Carolina lake on Wednesday
Waccamaw Siouan Chief Michael Jacobs explained: ‘That canoe at 28 feet long would have carried many a brave,’ said Jacobs. ‘We feel like in our heart, it’s a history that we’re still exploring and understanding because this is the first time we’ve had access.’
‘For years and years we’ve always been questioned about our history and where we come from and who we are.
‘Now, we have physical history to back it up.’
Teenager Eli Hill told local news outlet WECT how he and friends had stumbled upon it while swimming.
‘We were throwing mussels at each other and I stepped on it and I thought it was a log.
‘I tried to pick it open and never came up. So, we kept digging at it and it just kept going.
‘And then the next day, we came back and we started digging some more and it just kept going,’ Hill explained.
The canoe will now reportedly be taken to Greenville to be preserved and studied.
‘We’re looking forward to examining it, running some tests on it, really finding out and going back to our elders and getting the history of it, to where we can teach the truth to our people and know that we’ve got concrete evidence to stand on,’ Jacobs said.
Incredibly, the boat appeared well-preserved despite the length of time it is believed to have been submerged under the water.
Parts of preserved canoes like this one have previously been found in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.
In 2021, archaeologists in southern Mexico uncovered a well-preserved wooden vessel that was believed to have belonged to the Mayans, potentially dating back more than 1,000 years.
