Divers believe they may have found the oldest known ship in the world.
Carbon dating shows that wood found on the seabed off Hayling Island, Hampshire, is 6431 years old.
If the wood comes from a ship, it means they have found the oldest wreck known - pre-dating the pyramids and Stonehenge.
The wood has been discovered by members of the diving team which located the Tudor warship Mary Rose which was lifted from the Solent off Southsea.
The team has stayed together and, while investigating a Roman causeway in 1992, a short distance along the coast at Hayling, they found the pieces of wood
Initial analysis showed the wood was from before the fifteenth century and came from either a very cold or very hot climate but only recently has carbon dating been carried out.
Team member Don Bullivant, 64, said yesterday: ''We don't really know what we have got. It could be a clump of trees, which we think is unlikely, or it could be a building or it could be a ship.''
Electronic soundings show what could be the shape of a ship, although they could be misleading said Mr Bullivant.
''Hopefully it is a ship. If it is, we have the oldest ship in the world. The earliest recorded at the moment is 4000 years old.''
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