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A Bronze-Age barrow and walkway
Flag Fen
27 February 2000
Excavation at Flag Fen. Organic material has been 'pickled' in the fenland peat.
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The reconstructed roundhouse at Flag Fen and bronze-casting specialist Dave Chapman's modern-day yurt.
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Flag Fen, a few miles outside Peterborough, is one of the most important Bronze-Age sites in Europe. Discovered in 1982 by Francis Pryor, who is now director of the Flag Fen Laboratories and Bronze Age Centre, the area is unique in that large quantities of organic material from the period, including wood and leather, have survived, pickled in the waterlogged fenland peat. The centrepiece of this astonishing site is a one-kilometre-long alignment of posts passing across what would have been a stretch of open water during the Bronze Age and linking what was then the mainland with Northey Island. Where the alignment crosses the water, there is also a huge timber platform, some two and a half acres in extent.
At the mainland end of the alignment, which was excavated during the construction of a new power station, large numbers of broken bronze objects were discovered. It is believed that these were ritually broken and deposited there as 'votive offerings', perhaps as part of the funeral rites of the people living and farming in the area. The other end of the alignment, where the posts reach Northey Island, remains something of a mystery. Was this an 'island of the dead', where Bronze-Age people buried and honoured their relatives and leaders? Was the trackway along the post alignment a route along which cremated remains were brought for burial? The creation of a Millennium Cycleway around Peterborough led to Time Team being invited in to explore the ritual landscape of this prehistoric fen. The Team focused its attention on two excavations: Trench One, where the post alignment reached Northey Island; and Trench Two, on the site of one of the barrows on the prehistoric island where the dead were buried.
Trench One, which was dug across the route of the post alignment, soon uncovered ancient timbers, including an oak post poking up through the rich peat. On this were clearly visible bronze axe markings, where the rough wood had been stripped of its bark and shaped to a point some 3,000 or so years ago. Further down was a mass of other timbers from the trackway and platform, all of which had to be painstakingly excavated and recorded. Among the finds made here was a horse's jam, beach-smooth white quartz pebbles of the sort that are found as offerings at many ancient sites and a fragment of a beautiful black burnished bowl dated from around 900 BCE.
At Trench Two, progress was slower to begin with and the finds less conspicuous. Indeed, by the end of the first day, despite clear crop marks showing on an aerial photograph and a good geophysics reading, there was still no sign of where the barrow might have stood. Eventually, though, the barrow's original circular ditch was found, together with a surprise – a dark stain providing evidence that a roundhouse had also once stood on the site before the barrow was erected. A case of a house of the dead being built on a house of the living, according to Francis Pryor.
Meanwhile, Paul Middleton, a lecturer in archaeology, was conducting tests on phosphate levels in the soil in the vicinity of the barrow. High readings would indicate the possible presence of cremated remains, and sure enough the area contained by the barrow circle proved to show uniformly higher readings than the area beyond it – consistent with its reuse as a cemetery over a longer period of time. There was also one 'hot spot' in the centre of the barrow with the highest phosphate readings of all. A very finely worked flint arrowhead, typical of a Bronze-Age burial good and dating from about 2000 BCE, was found here, so when fragments of human bone and tooth enamel were also discovered it confirmed the presence of cremated remains. The discovery of a pottery sherd from a fineware shouldered cup or bowl, dated to about 900 BCE, suggested that the barrow had been in use for burials for more than 1,000 years – and that it had still been in use during the period when the post alignment and platform had been built.
Four million timbers
Both the sheer scale of the Bronze-Age engineering operation at Flag Fen and the evidence of the techniques used demonstrate the very sophisticated practices and capabilities of the people who lived in this part of Britain at that time. The post alignment is more than a kilometre in length, and where it would once have crossed open water a wooden platform was created that was at least two and a half acres in size. Timbers excavated from the site and on display at the Flag Fen visitor centre include planks and posts with mortice holes, tenon fingers, lap joints and blank mortice joints that are still used in carpentry today. It has been estimated that some 60-80,000 posts and possibly four million other timbers would have been needed for such a vast undertaking.
So what was it for? This is what the research into Flag Fen has to tell us so far.
A brief description and likely explanation of Bronze-Age Flag Fen
Immediately south and east of Peterborough there is a very low-lying, almost flat basin surrounded by slightly higher ground. The higher land today is known as Fengate (a part of Peterborough) while the lower land is the Flag Fen basin. The higher ground of Fengate was flood-free in prehistoric times and provided a safe location for farms and houses. The farms were dotted about the landscape and not yet clustered into villages. The houses were the typical roundhouses with conical roofs, large enough to accommodate a single family.
This flood-free landscape was parcelled up into fields and paddocks, which were separated from each other by long, straight tracks or droveways. The droves ran down to the lowest land, the Flag Fen basin, which was flooded by the waters of the River Nene in the wetter months of the year. During the summer, land that was flooded in winter provided lush hay and grazing for sheep and cattle.
Sometime around 1350 BCE, people living on the dry land around the Flag Fen basin realised that their flood meadows were threatened by the flocks and herds of neighbouring Fen communities, whose own land was being drowned by rising water levels. So they constructed a kilometre-long defensive wall or palisade of posts across the only access into their flood meadows from the open fen. It was a major feat of engineering, involving hundreds of thousands of timbers, and it was kept in good repair for 400 years, until about 950 BCE. At one point, the palisade had to run across an area of open water. Here the Bronze-Age engineers constructed an enormous artificial platform of timber to support and give access to the posts of the palisade, which ran straight across it.
In common with many prehistoric fortifications, the line of posts and the huge timber platform was also a site of special religious importance. Excavations have revealed hundreds of metal objects, human and animal bones. Many of the objects are made of bronze and would have been very valuable; many had been deliberately broken and carefully placed in the waters. The offerings are found concealed beneath the timbers of the platform and on one side of the posts. It was as if people were approaching their boundary to make a personal offering to ensure that it remained secure. Francis Pryor also suggests that it might have marked a symbolic boundary – between the worlds of the living and the dead. Even after the abandonment of the posts and platform to the rising waters, around 950 BCE, the place continued to be revered: many Iron-Age objects, including swords, ornaments and jewellery were smashed and then dropped into the water.
A bronze sword put back
As the regular 'cameo' reconstructing ancient skills or practices, this Time Team programme featured Dave Chapman, a bronze-casting specialist who brought his yurt (a large circular tent) to Flag Fen and built a clay kiln in which to cast a bronze axe. He used the most common casting technique, as used during the Bronze Age, called cira perdu or 'lost wax'. This involves forming the shape of the object to be cast with wax and then surrounding it with wet clay to make a mould. A hole is left at the top and the mould then heated to harden the clay and enable the wax to be poured out. The bronze alloy is fired to a temperature of 1,150 degrees centigrade when it becomes liquid and is then poured into the mould. In Dave's case, he mixed the clay with horse dung, which burns away during the firing. This makes the mould porous – and so avoids the explosion that would ensue if there was no means of escape for the gases emitted from the casting alloy during the heating process.
When the casting process was complete, there followed a tense moment as the mould was smashed before a successful bronze cast axe head was revealed. In a gesture towards the beliefs and practices of the original inhabitants of Flag Fen, Dave Chapman asked that a bronze sword he had made be offered to the waters on the site in recognition that so much had been removed. It was a request with which Francis Pryor was happy to comply.
Fire at Flag Fen
On 13 January 2000, fire broke out in the post-excavation research building at Flag Fen. This building housed thousands of slides and archive records, as well as some recent Bronze-Age finds. Fire crews were able to carry out several of the badly charred filing cabinets, but approximately 95% of the records were lost.
The fire also damaged part of the centre's schools education room. Flag Fen is still in need of both financial help and help in kind to reinstate the education facility. An appeal is being launched to try to replace some of the equipment. Francis Pryor, the Flag Fen director who was awarded an MBE in 1999 for his work at the site, told the local press: 'Archives and slides are everything in archaeology. We have some of the archive papers copied, but all my slides from 1971 onwards have gone, and there are no copies of them. This season's work and last season's work has completely gone, including many finds. I'm totally devastated.'
If you would like to make a donation please send it to:
Fenland Archaeological Trust (Registered Charity)
Fire Appeal
Flag Fen Excavations
Fourth Drove
Fengate
Peterborough PE1 5UR
Quiz
Resources
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Bronze Age Foundry
Dave Chapman
c/o 19 Holmwood Gdns
Finchley
London N3 3NS
Website: www.bronzeagefoundry.com
Dave Chapman, who cast the bronze axe head featured in the Flag fen programme runs the Bronze Age Foundry project. This is an attempt to recreate as nearly as possible the metallurgical technology of the Bronze Age. But Dave Chapman says it is not only an archaeological experiment – it is also a 'means of connecting with the skills and experience of our ancestors, both technical and magical'.
The design of the furnace and all the techniques he employs are derived from archaeological evidence supplemented by reference to techniques used by various so-called 'primitive' cultures around the world. The Bronze Age Foundry website contains further information together with details of bronze cast objects for sale.
Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre
Flag Fen Excavations
Fourth Drove
Fengate
Peterborough PE1 5UR
Website: www.flagfen.com
The Flag Fen visitor centre has both Bronze-Age and Iron-Age roundhouse reconstructions, giving a glimpse of what it would have been like to live at Flag Fen thousands of years ago. Its displays include the oldest wheel ever found in Britain, and there is also a specially constructed preservation hall built over one of the earlier excavations at the site. Here the visitor can view Bronze-Age timbers in permanent display just as they were discovered. Other attractions include a Roman herb garden and ancient farm-animal breeds. Flag Fen is also where the famous 'Seahenge' timbers, from the wood circle excavated and removed from off the Norfolk coast at Holme-next-the-Sea in 1999, are being preserved and studied. These are not yet on public display, however.
Friends of Flag Fen
Fenland Archaeological Trust (Membership)
Flag Fen Excavations
Fourth Drove
Fengate
Peterborough PE1 5UR
Full membership £30 per year, associate membership £10 per year, including a regular newsletter and free or discounted admission prices.
Further reading
Bronze Age Britain by Michael Parker Pearson (Batsford, 1996) paperback £15.99
Based on the prehistoric evidence, as well as current research and debate, this book examines how life in Britain changed during the period 4000-900 BC. Illustrated with lots of maps, plans, reconstructions and photographs.
Farmers in Prehistoric Britain by Francis Pryor (Tempus, 1998) hardback £18.99
Wearing both his hats as archaeologist and farmer, Pryor has produced an empathic work on the life and methods of prehistoric farmers. Often what survives is just a few cropmarks, but this work brings what is now obscure into vivid reality.
Flag Fen by Francis Pryor (Batsford/English Heritage 1991)
Fascinating account of the discovery of this Bronze-Age site. The Flag Fen Laboratories are where the Seahenge timbers are being studied and preserved. An exciting archaeological adventure story.
The Significance of Monuments by Richard Bradley (Routledge, 1998)
The author traces the history of Neolithic and Bronze-Age burial mounds, henges, stone circles and barrows since their first appearance 6,000 years or more ago. He provides insights into what they might have meant to and their role in the lives of prehistoric people in Europe.
Enlarging the Past by John and Bryony Coles (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1996) hardback £22.50
The history of wetland archaeology is traced through its major landmarks, with renowned excavations being set in a global context. Lively and informative.
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