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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
The unique Bronze Age monument uncovered at Flag Fen near Peterborough 30 years ago is still yielding exciting new findings about the life of Bronze Age man.
This marvel of engineering, consisting of 60,000 upright timbers and 250,000 planks formed a giant timber platform and causeway that lay buried underground, preserved in the waterlogged Cambridgeshire fenland, for more than 3,300 years. With the causeway half a mile in length and the platform bigger than Wembley Stadium, the monument is believed to have been used as a place of worship and ritual and is now regarded as one of the most significant Bronze Age sites in Northern Europe.
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
Currently listed by English Heritage as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, Flag Fen has been taken over by Vivacity Heritage, which is keen to restart stalled excavations. Vivacity interpretation manager Stuart Orme explained that it is imperative work gets underway soon, as the historic timbers are at risk of drying out due to the continuing drainage and development of the area. Once they are dust, the secrets they hold will also be lost forever.
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
It’s not quite a race against time yet,” Orme said, “but the ground is starting to dry out; we’ve got about 50 to 100 years left. But only 10 percent of the site has been excavated since it was discovered 30 years ago.”
In 2009 Flag Fen was on the brink of closure, due to a funding crisis facing the Fenland Archaeological Trust. Its future was secured when the site was given over to become part of the Heritage Service of Vivacity, which also operates Peterborough Museum and Longthorpe Tower.
Vivacity is a not-for-profit organization with charitable status, specially created to encourage more people to take advantage of Peterborough’s cultural, leisure and sport facilities. Peterborough’s city council has pledged £100,000 for the next three years to support Flag Fen while it re-establishes itself. Since taking over the 37-acre site last year, Vivacity has reopened the park, updated visitor facilities and is keen for more people to experience Flag Fen for themselves and to see this awe-inspiring feat of Bronze Age engineering.
“Flag Fen is one of the rare places in this country, and indeed in Europe, where you can come along and see uncovered timbers that formed part of a Bronze Age causeway,” Orme said. “The place is a fascinating step back in time; it’s a magical site—a haven on the outskirts of Peterborough. It really is a remarkable place and one of the finest Bronze Age archaeological sites making it of international significance, too. It’s basically a window into how our ancestors lived 3,500 years ago.”
The Flag Fen story began on a chilly November day in 1982, when archaeologists examining the sides of newly cleared dikes for physical evidence below the soil came across a piece of oak that had been split in a distinctive manner.
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
For more information
on Flag Fen visit www.vivacitypeterborough.com.
Admission prices are £5 for adults and £3.75 for children. A family ticket costs £13.75.
April to September, opening hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Check the website for winter opening times.
Getting there by car:
Flag Fen can be accessed from junction five of the A1139 or via the B1040 from Whittlesey or Thorney, turning at the Dog in the Doublet Pub. Brown signs direct travellers from Peterborough, but not from Whittlesey or Thorney.
Dr. Francis Pryor, who was leading the team, discovered more timbers, including what appeared to be a vertical post that had been worked with a small bladed axe. The piece was eventually dated to 1,000 BC. Subsequent investigations revealed more large planks of split oak that had been part of a giant causeway and platform, preserved in the wet, peaty soil for centuries.
Creating such a causeway over the marshes would have been a monumental undertaking for Prehistoric man. With each individual piece of timber worked and shaped with primitive hand tools, the structure would require countless thousands of hours to create. Archaeologists believe that construction continued over a period of 400 years, going from two rows of posts and a walkway to five rows with a wattle fence to the northern side.
Historians have come up with many theories about the site’s purpose—one being that during the lifetime of this monument, Wiltshire’s famous Stonehenge fell out of favor as a place of mass gathering. Worshippers began migrating east and shifted their focus to Flag Fen. Further excavations revealed partitions or walls within the structure of the causeway—leading to an early theory that it could have been a lake village, although further analysis has shown that no one ever lived there.
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
lay OF THE land
Quite why the massive structure at Flag Fen was constructed remains a mystery. Archaeologists assume that it is too big and ornate to have been purely functional.
Many artifacts, including metal, swords and stone, have been unearthed within the structure, and some had been intentionally fixed in place within the wood. The items had not been lost, but deliberately put there as votive offerings. A history of feasts at the site is suggested by a large number of animal bones.
Other treasure uncovered at the site and on display include the oldest wheel in England, a rare gold ring (one of only two in the world from this period), a scabbard with perhap the earliest example of Celtic art, one of the country’s finest collections of Bronze Age swords and a rare selection of metal-workers’ tools.
The artifacts indicate a rich and creative life, and show just how well connected our Bronze Age Celtic ancestors were with mainland Europe. They also hint at their beliefs and trading systems. The discoveries have led historians to believe that Flag Fen was a ritual site, where people came to honor their ancestors and make offerings to the gods.
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
The new Vivacity management team is hoping more discoveries will be made. When excavations resume, viewing areas will enable visitors to watch the course of the excavation in action.
Visitors can also explore 20 acres outdoors and two indoor exhibitions. Wander into a reconstructed Bronze Age landscape and village where you can try your hand at ancient crafts such as weaving. There is also a Roman garden to meander through and part of a Roman road with its original surface. The visitor center includes a gift shop and restaurant.
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COURTESY OF VIVACITY CULTURE AND LEISURE
1 Water Meadows: Flag Fen itself is a basin surrounded by slightly raised land, relatively dry in summer, flooding in winter.
2 Settlements: Excavations at the causeway’s western end show a large community that was occupied during a part of the year.
3 Platform: The central timber platform equals the size of a football field. Whether it was used for refuge and defense or for religious ceremony is one of the questions as yet unanswered.
4 Post Alignment: The causeway itelf consists of five rows of timber posts stretching across two-thirds of a mile.
5 Northey & Fengate: To the east and west, the land gently rises and is flood-free. The eastern dry land is known as Fengate, and the west as Northey.
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