The wood is being conserved by Historic England ... He said: "It was clearly very old and appeared well preserved in peat. After hosing it down, we saw that it had markings that appeared unnatural ...

“The moment the spade started to be uncovered the team on site knew it was a very special object ... dating of the wood itself confirms it is c. 3,500-3,400 years old, placing it firmly in ...

One of the oldest wooden discoveries was a 400,000-year-old spear in prehistoric sands at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, in 1911. Unless it is preserved in very specific conditions, wood simply rots away.