A well-preserved shipwreck dating back to roughly 1200 BC will be pulled from the sea in sections next month to further study the techniques used to build the vessel, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) recently announced.

The shipwreck is located off the coast of Croatia in the Bay of Zambratija in the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers refer to it as the “Zambratija ship,” and it measures roughly 39 feet in length, of which roughly 23 feet is well-preserved, Newsweek reports. The ship is of interest to researchers mainly because of its age and the fact that it’s a hand-sewn boat.

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“Its architecture and its construction, the assembly technique of the strakes, as well as the waterproofing system of the hull, have no equivalent in the Mediterranean area,” a description of the wreck from Centre Camille Jullian, one of the organizations that will study the ship, said. “Due to all these architectural features, the types of assemblage employed and the dating, the Zambratija boat can be considered as the archetype of one of the sewn boat building traditions identified in the Adriatic.”

Read more: Daily Wire