7,000-year-old canoes from Italy are the oldest ever found in the Mediterranean

Five canoes found at the bottom of a lake in Italy were used more than 7,000 years ago for fishing and transport by people living in a Neolithic village near what is now Rome.

Archaeologists discovered the boats at La Marmotta, a prehistoric coastal settlement that is now underwater, while conducting ongoing excavations, according to a study published Wednesday (March 20) in the journal PLOS One.

The large dugout canoes — which were constructed of alder, oak, poplar and European beech — were built between 5700 and 5100 B.C., radiocarbon dating revealed.