16 Indigenous canoes, one older than the Pyramids

[727Sky]

They make a big deal out of this discovery and it is considering the preserved wood but for my 2 cents worth people were building water craft after they saw the first log floating.
https://www.zmescience.com/science/archa...wisconsin/

Archaeologists found the first ancient canoe in Lake Mendota back in 2021. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society.
In 2021, archaeologists diving in Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, spotted something unusual jutting out of the mud: a wooden canoe. At first, they assumed it was a lucky, isolated find. But as they continued to sweep the lakebed, they just kept finding more canoes.
It turned out to be a massive archaeological jackpot. Over the last four years, researchers have identified 16 wooden canoes, transforming our understanding of the area. This place was a prehistoric “parking lot” where Indigenous people docked their boats for thousands of years.
A Prehistoric Marina
The fleet found in Lake Mendota is striking in its diversity and age. The vessels range from 700 to 5,200 years old. To put that in perspective, the oldest canoe was carved from red oak around 3000 B.C.—roughly the same time ancient Sumerians were inventing writing and centuries before the Egyptians laid the first stone of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
“Constructed of red oak, it is now the oldest dugout canoe recorded from the Great Lakes region,” Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin’s state maritime archaeologist, told Fox News Digital. She notes that it is likely the third-oldest canoe ever found in eastern North America.
Archaeologists believe this site served as a busy transit hub. Ancient travelers would paddle across the lake, dock their canoes near a network of trails, and continue their journey on foot. Today, the canoes sit under about 8 meters (26 feet) of water, but millennia ago, this spot was a shallow shoreline about 1.2 meters deep, ideal for parking a boat.
“It’s a parking spot that’s been used for millennia, over and over,” Thomsen said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Ancient Bioengineering
The oldest canoe found in Lake Mendota, which is about 5,200 years old. Credit: Wisconsin Historical Society
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the discovery isn’t just the age of the boats, but the tech used to build them.
Indigenous shipwrights carved these vessels from red and white oak, ash, elm, cottonwood, and basswood. Oak is a surprisingly heavy choice for a boat because it tends to absorb water and sink. However, Thomsen and her team found evidence of ancient “bioengineering.”

“The canoes remind us how long our people have lived in this region and how deeply connected we remain to these waters and lands,” said Bill Quackenbush, the Ho-Chunk Nation’s tribal preservation officer.
When oak trees are wounded, they produce balloon-like structures called tyloses to seal off their own vascular system and prevent rot. The researchers believe Indigenous craftspeople intentionally damaged the trees while they were still standing to trigger this reaction. This made the wood more buoyant and resistant to rot before they even began carving.
“They weren’t just walking through a forest and decided that was the tree they were going to take,” Thomsen told the Wisconsin State Journal. “They were selectively managing trees that were probably near the shoreline.”
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Preserving the Past
So far, researchers have extracted two of the canoes. They are currently being stabilized with polyethylene glycol and freeze-dried at Texas A&M University to prevent the wood from disintegrating. The plan is to display one of these ancient vessels at the new Wisconsin History Center when it opens in 2027.
The remaining 14 canoes will stay where they have rested for centuries: preserving their history in the lakebed.
For the Indigenous communities involved, this is more than an archaeological dig—it’s a reaffirmation of presence. “The canoes remind us how long our people have lived in this region,” said Bill Quackenbush, the Ho-Chunk Nation’s tribal preservation officer. “Protecting and preserving this knowledge ensures that the next generation understands where we come from and why these stories matter.”