The 1986 two brothers from Kibbutz Ginosar discovered the Galilee Boat when a severe drought resulted in the lowering of the waters of the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: Yam Kinneret). The vessel had been buried in, and thus protected by, the seabed's sediments. The Antiquities Authority, assisted by many volunteers, rescued the boat in a remarkable eleven-day excavation. Excavators packaged the weak and waterlogged hull in a cocoon of fiberglass and polyurethane foam, and then successfully floated it to the nearby Yigal Allon Centre, where it underwent an extensive carefully monitored eleven-year-long conservation process in a specially-built pool.

To conserve it, the boat was submerged in a solution of heated polyethylene glycol (PRG). This synthetic wax replaced the water in the wood cells. The hull was then allowed to dry slowly and cleaned of excess wax, thus allowing for its present exhibition in the atmosphere-controlled museum environment.

The boat is preserved to a length of 8.2 meters (26.9 feet), a breadth of 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) and a height of 1.2 meters (3.9 feet). It is built in the typical ancient Mediterranean 'shell-based' construction, employing pegged mortise-and-tenon joints to edge-join the planking. Iron nails hold the frames to the hull.

Numerous repairs, the reuse of timbers and a multiplicity of wood types (twelve) evident in the hull, suggest that this vessel had a long work life an owner of meager means. Based on several criteria the Galilee Boat is firmly dated to the first centuries BCE-CE. An analyses of crew size suggests that this is the type of boat referred to in the Gospels in use among Jesus' Disciples, as well as that used by the

against the Romans in the nautical Battle of Migdal in CE 67. This humble vessel is, thus, a remarkable porthole into the past providing a clearer view of the Galilean seafaring that forms the backdrop to both Jesus' ministry and the Battle of Migdal.

In February 2000, fourteen years after its excavation, the boat moved to its permanent home, in a new wing of the Yigal Allon Centre, which is devoted to the story of man in the Galilee.

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