Flag Fen, east of Peterborough, England, is a Bronze Age site which was constructed about 3500 years ago and consists of more than 60,000 timbers arranged in five very long rows, creating a wooden causeway (around 1 km long) across the wet fenland. Part-way across the structure a small island was formed. Items associated with it have led scholars to conclude that the island was of religious significance. Archaeological work began in 1982 at the site, which is located 800 m (0.5 miles) east of Fengate. Flag Fen is now part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership. A visitor centre has been constructed on site and some areas have been reconstructed, including a typical Iron Age roundhouse dwelling.
Construction
A Neolithic trackway once ran across what archaeologists have termed the "Flag Fen Basin", from a dry-land area known as Fengate to a natural clay island called Northey. The basin is an embayment of low-lying land on the western margins of the Fens. The level of inundation by 1300 BC led the occupants to construct a timber causeway along the trackway route. The causeway and centre platform were formed by driving 'thousands of posts with long pencil-like tips' through the 'accumulating peaty muds' and into the firmer ground below. The resulting structure covered three and a half acres.
Dendrochronological analysis (dating of the posts by studying tree rings) led to an estimated date for the various stages of construction of between 1365 and 967 BC. Some of the timbers, such as oak, were not native to the local environment. They made a significant effort to transport the timbers to the site from distant sources. Similarly, scholars have traced the bluestone used at Stonehenge, Salisbury, as originating in the Preseli Mountains in Wales.
Purpose
Many items denoting 'rank and prestige' were deposited in the water surrounding Flag Fen, including swords, spearheads, 'gold earrings, tiny pins and brooches'. Archaeologist Francis Pryor, who discovered the site in 1982, suggests that 'settlers often vied for social status by showing they could afford to discard valuable possessions'. There is also evidence of intentional destruction before placement, e.g. daggers broken in half placed on top of each other.
Other finds included small, polished, white stones of a type not known in the area, indicating that they had been intentionally collected and transported to and placed at the site. Other artefacts found were animal bones, including horse mandibles. Horses were very valuable to the prehistoric people, since they provided a means of transport and could supplement or replace man-power. For example, they could be used to carry or pull timbers on sledges over long distances. Significance is also drawn from the discovery of the ritual deposits within thirty metres of the timber post line, and only on its southern boundary. The amount, type, and placement of deposits, which continued for more than 1,200 years, support the theory that 'at least one facet of the site' was a role as a 'religious monument'.
On Northey Island many round barrows contemporary with Flag Fen were found. These seemed to be constructed over the dwellings of 'chiefs'. Mike Parker Pearson refers to this as the "Land of the Dead". There is also evidence of farming, including sheep remains, contemporary with the site. Phosphate analysis reveals high concentrations of cremations in the barrows, in the form of satellite and secondary burials in the round barrows. This suggests that the primary burials may have been of chiefs, or socially powerful/respected people, and that some people may have paid to be buried close to the person they respected or followed.
Destruction and preservation
Because of its waterlogged condition the Flag Fen Basin was an area where peat deposits developed around 2000 BCE, and they survive there today. The anaerobic conditions generated by silt deposits from the fens protected the wooden posts and rafters of the collapsed structures from rotting away under the influence of air and bacteria. In the 10th century BC the ground level was much lower than today, increasing around 1 mm (0.039 inches) per year as autumnal debris was added to the surface of the fens. By the early Roman period most of the structure was covered and preserved.