Withy Bed Copse Trackway
Withy Bed Track · Sharpham Trackway
Late Bronze Age 902 BCE·Late Bronze Age Somerset Levels herders·🇬🇧 Somerset, Somerset Levels, Shapwick Heath, United Kingdom
About
About Withy Bed Copse Trackway
Bronze Age timber trackway at Withy Bed Copse, Shapwick Heath, dated 902 BCE dendro (radiocarbon wiggle 900-850 BCE) representing Late Bronze Age revival of Somerset Levels trackway tradition 2340 years after Meare Heath. 2 m wide with hurdle panels of hazel and willow woven on birch cross-bearers, preserved 450 m. Unlike the massive oak plank Neolithic tracks, Withy Bed uses light hurdle engineering, indicating seasonal fen crossing for Bronze Age cattle droving between Shapwick and Meare lake villages.
Excavation 1992 by Somerset Levels Project recorded preserved cattle hoof-prints in peat beside the walkway, direct evidence of droving function. The track is contemporary with Must Farm's hurdle causeways (800 BCE) but 100 years earlier, proving Somerset hurdle antecedent.
Why it mattersLate Bronze Age hurdle trackway proves Somerset Levels trackway tradition revived after 2340-yr hiatus; hoof-print droving evidence direct.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why 2340-year hiatus between Meare Heath and Withy Bed
Theories
- 01Cattle droving vs human ritual procession interpretation
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.902 BCE (dendro wiggle 900-850 BCE)
- Period
- Late Bronze Age 902 BCE
- Culture
- Late Bronze Age Somerset Levels herders
- Builders
- Shapwick-Meare Bronze Age cattle herders
- Purpose
- Hurdle causeway for cattle droving between lake villages
- Abandoned
- c.850 BCE peat flooding
- Rediscovered
- 1992 Coles & Minnitt excavation; 2020 radiocarbon wiggle confirms 902 BCE
- Excavation
- Excavated
902 BCE
Dendro wiggle felling autumn 902 BCE
1992
Excavation records hoof-prints beside track
2020
Wiggle-match refines to 902 BCE
On the ground
Structures & features
51.1480° N · 2.8200° W · 4 m · 2 mapped features
Central Hurdle Panel
trackwayHazel hurdle woven panel 2 m with cattle hoof-prints adjacent
51.1480° N · 2.8200° WShapwick Terminus
habitationEastern terminus at Shapwick Late Bronze activity area
51.1490° N · 2.8150° W
Gallery