Flag Fen Bronze Age Causeway
Flag Fen · Must Farm polities
Bronze Age to Iron Age (~1500–300 BCE; causeway 1350–1150 BCE)·British Bronze Age (Deverel-Rimbury to Post-Deverel-Rimbury)·🇬🇧 Cambridgeshire, Fenland, United Kingdom
The original uploader was Kev747 at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0
About
About Flag Fen Bronze Age Causeway
A 1-km line of 60,000 oak posts forming a causeway and platform across Flag Fen where Francis Pryor excavated systematic votive deposits: over 300 metalwork items deliberately broken (swords bent, spears), quernstones with fresh flour, live sheep deposited and then drowned. The sedge peat preserved timber tool marks. Nearby Must Farm pile dwellings (1000 BCE), destroyed by fire, preserve Late Bronze Age roundhouses with textiles, wicker and glass bead sets in situ.
Why it mattersA 1-km line of 60,000 oak posts forming a causeway and platform across Flag Fen where Francis Pryor excavated systematic votive deposits: over 300 metalwork items deliberately broken (swords bent, spe
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why deliberate destruction of prestige metalwork and livestock in fen
- 02Function as processional avenue vs boundary rampart between wetter and drier fen
Theories
- 01Elite ritual domain where Fen causeway materialized cosmology between land and water
- 02Chiefdom competition display through conspicuous destruction (potlatch)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1350 BCE (causeway felling; dendrochronology 1298 BCE + storage)
- Period
- Bronze Age to Iron Age (~1500–300 BCE; causeway 1350–1150 BCE)
- Culture
- British Bronze Age (Deverel-Rimbury to Post-Deverel-Rimbury)
- Purpose
- 1-km post alignment and votive deposit causeway across fen between Fengate and Northey island
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.1350 BCE (causeway felling; dendrochronology 1298 BCE + storage)
Initial construction
c. 1341 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
52.5747° N · 0.1897° W · 2 m · 2 mapped features
Flag Fen Timber Alignment
causeway60,000 oak post line with preserved hurdle platform and votive layer
52.5747° N · 0.1897° WMust Farm Pile Dwelling (130 m south)
crannogFire-preserved Late Bronze stilt houses with intact pottery and textiles
52.5730° N · 0.1880° W
Gallery