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Seahenge: a quest for life and death in Bronze Age Britain
Francis Pryor
A lively and authoritative investigation into the lives of our ancestors, based on the revolution in the field of Bronze Age archaeology which has been taking place in Norfolk and the Fenlands over the last twenty years, and in which the author has played a central role.One of the most haunting and enigmatic archaeological discoveries of recent times was the uncovering in 1998 at low tide of the so-called Seahenge off the north coast of Norfolk. This circle of wooden planks set vertically in the sand, with a large inverted tree-trunk in the middle, likened to a ghostly ‘hand reaching up from the underworld’, has now been dated back to around 2020 BC. The timbers are currently (and controversially) in the author’s safekeeping at Flag Fen.Francis Pryor and his wife (an expert in ancient wood-working and analysis) have been at the centre of Bronze Age fieldwork for nearly 30 years, piecing together the way of life of Bronze Age people, their settlement of the landscape, their religion and rituals. The famous wetland sites of the East Anglian Fens have preserved ten times the information of their dryland counterparts like Stonehenge and Avebury, in the form of pollen, leaves, wood, hair, skin and fibre found ‘pickled’ in mud and peat.Seahenge demonstrates how much Western civilisation owes to the prehistoric societies that existed in Europe in the last four millennia BC.
SEAHENGE
New Discoveries in Prehistoric Britain
FRANCIS PRYOR
Copyright (#ud2d6f5d6-55e8-5a71-8473-fc9065e89a8d)
HarperPress
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
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Copyright © Francis Pryor 2001
Francis Pryor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Maps and diagrams by Leslie Robinson and Rex Nicholls
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Source ISBN: 9780007101924
Ebook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780007380824
Version: 2016-09-15
To the memory
of my father-in-law,
DAVID SMITH
Contents
Cover (#u4d78b7aa-1064-5ac1-8805-027dd5ec21bb)
Title Page (#u82be0bc8-10f7-5cc9-95cb-def4809a168c)
Copyright
PLATES (#u47a428ea-3ad4-5469-bcac-a1cb5f836900)
MAPS AND DIAGRAMS (#u3156d25b-8ab7-5ce5-9b73-17634e3c4c7c)
DATES AND PERIODS (#u75565f70-1e3d-5ee6-834c-b7ee76d07e20)
PREFACE: The Quest (#u9fa57314-475a-5347-94f2-04ac74c588a9)
PROLOGUE: John Lorimer’s Discovery (#u4c825fdc-da1f-5e10-b06b-6494ccf5ca60)
CHAPTER ONE: Setting the Scene (#ue2c93695-a2e7-52a0-bc91-899a41ddee54)
CHAPTER TWO: The Hunt is On (#udbd47cd3-3cf0-522f-8c6f-ce88184b7c05)
CHAPTER THREE: A Trans-Atlantic Commuter (#ufcde3f16-210d-50c0-be92-3235f1364d98)
CHAPTER FOUR: Direction and Disorientation (#u4fe61ba5-5eb4-5abd-a610-b2e9ecbd9446)
CHAPTER FIVE: Gardens of Creation (#u4d1f69e3-03c2-5e6e-b48a-6897f1003111)
PLATES SECTION 1 (#ufeb08114-a807-5358-b6e1-7086780f4869)
CHAPTER SIX: Ritual Landscapes (#uafb10d9d-28d9-52f6-8b50-7eb6f3a1e513)
CHAPTER SEVEN: Etton and the Origins of Ancestral Authority (#u22bece56-f94e-5da3-b1e5-2433bd4f7653)
CHAPTER EIGHT: Rites of Passage in a Private World (#ub97f3c34-63ca-5b68-8a73-2ac89c63bcbc)
CHAPTER NINE: The Living Dead: Ancestral Spirits in the Landscape (#ue9a81415-c482-5c83-b370-d6150be74eea)
PLATES SECTION 2 (#uda243e27-b078-5b5e-828d-d96a164da0f7)
CHAPTER TEN: The Wetland Revolution (#ufc9901f1-3e96-578a-a7ea-61a0da5ceacb)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Daily Round (#uda1cca76-d5e0-5331-b241-14b09a5bbe27)
CHAPTER TWELVE: Between the Tides (#uc87b6e0c-ca98-5fb6-907f-267587c986ca)
PLATES SECTION 3 (#uaf67eca0-195c-588e-879a-816c59c4a76e)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The World Turned Upside Down (#u6af1603f-d807-5d5e-8314-82f095905a99)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Passage of Arms (#ud7024014-6e98-5bb5-bf18-ce83d4b06889)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Retrospect and Prospect (#u750daccc-8e82-5388-8713-9b3574fd2bbb)
FURTHER READING (#u582762a8-9f0b-5db9-9f96-02381748bec5)
INDEX (#ua2a367d5-b7cc-522a-bb26-7a3fe008cd94)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (#ud65bc581-f0dc-55d7-a63e-4ea017f15503)
Keep Reading (#u7a270958-facb-5a71-9ec2-1e898b66012c)
About the Publisher (#u9b6d440b-dc33-561f-926d-768e8fcc472b)
PLATES (#ulink_42129878-4ce3-5221-965f-bc4ee30f0e6a)
(Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are from the author’s collection)
PLATES SECTION 1 (#ufeb08114-a807-5358-b6e1-7086780f4869)
The prehistoric landscape at Fengate, Peterborough. The Bronze Age fields were used by livestock farmers between 2500 and 1000 BC.
Unexcavated Bronze Age droveway ditches at Fengate, showing on the stripped gravel surface as dark marks.
The bank that ran alongside a Bronze Age ditch at Fengate was preserved beneath upcast from a modern drainage dyke.
A minor Bronze Age double-ditched droveway being excavated at Fengate.
Body of a young man buried at Fengate sometime between 3500 and 3000 BC.
Gold objects from Barrow G.8 at Wilsford, Wiltshire (2000–1800 BC). (Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society)
Gold grave-goods from a barrow at Little Cressingham, Norfolk (2000–1800 BC). (Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service)
Sheet-gold cape found at Mold, Flintshire, Wales in 1833. It covered a body which lay under a cairn in a gravel pit (2000–1800 BC). (British Museum)
The Carnac alignments, erected near the coast in Brittany during the Late Neolithic period, around 3500 to 2500 BC (The Ancient Art & Architecture Collection)
The aerial photograph which first revealed the faint cropmarks of the Etton causewayed enclosure (3800 BC). (Photo: S.J. Upex)
Corn-grinding stone, or quern, buried on-edge in the Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Etton (3800 BC).
Aerial photograph taken by J.K. St Joseph in July 1951, showing cropmarks south of Maxey church, Cambridgeshire. (© Crown Copyright 1951/MOD. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office)
The immediate effects of de-watering on waterlogged Neolithic wood (3800 BC) at Etton.
The base of a Bronze Age notched log ladder (1000 BC) found at the bottom of a large quarry pit at Fengate.
The notched log ladder from the Fengate quarry pit.
A notched log ladder in the courtyard of a disused Tibetan Buddhist temple in the Himalayas north of Kathmandu, Nepal. (Photo: Felix Pryor)
Reconstruction of the first Bronze Age roundhouse (c.1500 BC) to be found at Fengate.
Skeleton of a young woman found at Fengate and radiocarbon dated to 3030–2500 BC.
Bronze Age weapons (1300–900 BC) from Flag Fen.
Bronze Age wheel found at Flag Fen, dating to about 1300 BC.
Middle Bronze Age stone roadway (1200–1300 BC) at Yarnton, Oxfordshire.
Clothes of a young Middle Bronze Age woman (1400–1200 BC) found in a barrow at Egtved Farm in southern Jutland, Denmark. (Danish National Museum)
PLATES SECTION 2 (#uda243e27-b078-5b5e-828d-d96a164da0f7)
John Lorimer holds the bronze axe that started the Seahenge saga.
A view along the Holme-next-the-Sea peat beds at low tide, autumn 1998, showing the timber circle.
The team from the Norfolk Archaeological Unit start working on the ground-plan of the Seahenge timbers.
A close-up of the post circle, showing the eroded and damaged state of the timbers.
The initial exploratory trench within the circle of timbers, autumn 1988.
Part of the inverted oak tree exposed by the excavation.
A post being prepared for removal.
The team’s soil scientist, Dr Fran Green, records the precise position of sample tins placed in the section on either side of a post.
A group of Druids occupy the central tree in an attempt to prevent its removal.
PLATES SECTION 3 (#uaf67eca0-195c-588e-879a-816c59c4a76e)
Sheets of foam being attached to the central tree to cushion the straps which would be used to lift it.
The lifting of the central oak tree.
The tree trunk was carefully checked when clear of the ground, in case any votive offering or other unexpected find might still be adhering to it.
Members of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit preparing to lift the final two timbers of the Seahenge circle.
The central tree in a shallow water bath at Flag Fen.
The flat underside of the central oak tree was found to be covered with axe-marks, believed to be the earliest left by a metal tool yet found in Britain. One of the towing loops, still with honeysuckle rope in place, is also visible. (Photo: F. Pryor. Courtesy of English Heritage)
One of the Seahenge timbers being carried to the washing tanks at Flag Fen.
Wide axe-marks, similar to those on the central oak tree, were also found on the lower, chopped ends of the oak posts of the timber circle. (Photo: F. Pryor. Courtesy of English Heritage)
The freshly de-barked oak-tree stump with one of the two towing loops and a length of twisted honeysuckle rope ready for the reconstruction of a full-size replica of Seahenge by Channel 4’s Time Team.
The Time Team reconstruction reaches a critical stage, with the oak tree poised above the hole dug to receive it.
The roots of the central oak are levered upwards, and the two-ton tree drops into position.
