Yesterday evening, we went to Flag Fen to hear a talk about the discovery and preservation of eight Bronze Age boats which were discovered in the edge of a brick quarry at Must Farm, Whittlesey.
The boats are 3,500 years old and are a unique find, incredibly well preserved - nothing else quite like this has been found anywhere else in Europe.
When the boats were in use, the area to the east of Fengate in Peterborough would have been a freshwater lagoon between the higher land to the west and Northey Island where modern Whittlesey now stands.
The whole site is incredibly rich in archaeology. The lagoon (modern Flag Fen) contains a man-made island about 80 metres long, constructed of timber piles and this was linked to dry land at Fengate and Northey Island by a causeway of wooden piles with decking between. It's thought the structure had some ceremonial significance; because around this time (1,500 years BCE) the stone henges which are so well known - Avebury, Stonehenge, etc - were falling out of use, so there was a new religion/beliefs coming to the fore.
It's possible that this structure just outside modern Peterborough's industrial eastern side was linked to that. Perhaps water played some part in their beliefs and this may have been some kind of transitional pathway, signifying the passage into death. Evidence for it having a religious or ceremonial purpose comes from numerous artifacts - jewellery, swords, tools and other items - which had been thrown into the water off the causeway, but at one side only.
Must Farm - at the Whittlesey side of the lagoon - contained a bronze age village which was excavated a little while ago. This was on the edge of a large brick quarry, owned by Hanson. As the quarry is expanded to dig out more clay, Hanson has to undertake (and pay for) archaeological surveys and digs. The company has actually been extremely supportive of archaeology and has worked with different teams, including those from Cambridge University who dug out the boats.
The boats were found in the silt of what would have been part of an old course of the River Nene. The quarry now cuts across this, but, of course, the river now runs north of Whittlesey leaving the bronze age river bed high and dry at the edge of a quarry.
The boats were a remarkable find. To discover one would be incredible, but to find eight was unbelievable and has created a massive conservation challenge. The boats were removed intact by digging under them and constructing a scaffold platform on which to lift them. They are eight to 10 metres long, so we're not talking about little canoes. The boats are in an amazingly good condition, the wet conditions have preserved them, but they are fragile. It seems they have the consistency of my famous Cornish Pasty pastry.
If they dry out they will crumble to dust.
The man in charge of conservation is Ian Panter from York University and it was his lecture we'd gone to listen to. The conservation project is now under way and it comprises spraying the boats with a water and wax solution which keeps them wet and allows the wood to absorb wax which strengthens the timber.
The boats look remarkably solid and intact, but they are rotten to the core. Six are oak, one alder and one willow. Preservation of this type of ancient wood is in its infancy - some Viking timbers have been preserved in York, but they are 'only' a thousand years old; the most famous timber preservation project has been the Mary Rose (the Tudor galleon) and that is just 500 years old.
To conserve the boats a special building has been constructed at Flag Fen and we'll be able to see them in situ this spring, when the site re-opens. It's great that the boats will be preserved close to where they were used 3,500 years ago, but what will happen to them once the conservation process if complete, we don't know.
It's incredible to think of people 3,500 years ago living and working where we live and work today. We think we're so advanced and clever, but these folk knew a lot. At Must Farm, they has discovered eel traps woven from willow which are more or less identical to ones still used by fishermen (not many of them) today.
If you want to read more about the boats, there are two links below. If you want to know about the wider Flag Fen site, there's a book called Flag Fen by Francis Prior. It's short, but very interesting and it's available for Kindle. There’s a fascinating piece on how Neolithic people would have split tree logs into planks, also a report about dove-tail joints being found in Bronze Age wheels. Bearing in mind that the saw hadn’t been invented and the joint would have to be made by bronze chisel, anyone who has made a dove-tail joint will know how clever this was.
http://www.mustfarm.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/MustRead-JuneHYPERLINK "http://www.mustfarm.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/MustRead-June2012.pdf"2012HYPERLINK "http://www.mustfarm.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/MustRead-June2012.pdf".pdf
 |
| One of the boats in situ (above): You can see how large it is. Below: a recreated dug-out boat being tested. |
No comments:
Post a Comment