England is an amazing destination for archaeologists. Here, under the layers of earth and sand, are hidden evidence of the life of many eras and peoples … And on the famous English peat bogs, unique scientific discoveries can be made …
Board under peat
It is unlikely that the worker Raymond Sweet, who was going to peat extraction on a winter morning in 1970, suspected that on this day he would go down in history forever. As usual, he came to the peat bog and began his working day.
He was instructed to clear one of the drainage trenches, overgrown with bushes and grass. Sweet was working with a shovel, cutting off the rhizomes, and suddenly felt that the iron rested on something hard. The worker thought it was a thick root of some plant and decided to dig it up. But when he cleared the ground, he found a plank of very hard wood.
Sweet immediately realized that the plaque stored beneath the layers of peat formed thousands of years ago could not be ordinary. He chipped off a small piece of the board and went with it to the management of his company. The manager turned out to be an educated enough person to understand what value this piece represents. He ordered for the time being to stop the extraction of peat, and sent a piece of antiquity to archaeologists.
The fragment fell into the hands of Professor John Coles, a scientist from Cambridge University, who has long been interested in the depths of peat bogs, which are fraught with many interesting things. Coles, carefully examining a piece of the board, became convinced that it has a very ancient origin. He immediately got ready and went to the swamps to carefully examine the place of the find. A preliminary study of the excavated site with the remains of the boards showed that they were made using stone and wooden tools about 4-5 thousand years ago …
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Excavation in the swamp
Meanwhile, weather conditions made it difficult to dig closely, and Coles was looking forward to the beginning of summer to go on an expedition to the peat bogs.
Waiting for the warm season, Coles arrived in Somerset with a group of students and began to study the ancient boards. Slowly and carefully, the professor and his students excavated, trying to unravel the secrets of the swamp. Studies have shown that unusual boards are kept under the peat, and complex wooden structures … Upon further study, it turned out that they are very ancient footbridges intended for pedestrians.
Parts of the boards were sent to Cambridge for laboratory analysis. Radiocarbon analysis - the most effective method for determining the age of archaeological antiquities, has shown that the age of these remains is as much as six thousand years!
From this it followed that the world's oldest man-made road was found in the swamp. Archaeologists named it “Sweet's Road” after a worker who found it and was able to understand the meaning of his find. Under this name it appears in all reference books on archeology.
Note that in the beginning, all peat extraction activities at the site of the unusual find were discontinued. But later, during the excavation, conflicts arose several times with peat mining companies that had licenses to work in these places.
One day, a group of Professor Coles, going to the excavation in the morning, saw how an excavator breaks part of an ancient road. The vandalism was stopped, but scientists could not come to their senses for a long time - if they were in the swamp a little later, only chips would have remained from the unique monument of antiquity. But the intervention of the authorities ended the war between scientists and industrialists, and archaeologists were able to calmly study the ancient monument …
"Conserved" road
For 10 years John Coles studied Sweet's road, came here with expeditions, and compiled inventories of the finds.
Archaeologists found all the elements of the ancient structure, found out its length, and determined the location of the road with an accuracy of a centimeter. Once it was intended to move from one small island to another - earlier there was not a peat bog, but a swampy lowland overgrown with reeds.
The uniqueness of this road, in addition to its age, was that the tree was perfectly preserved, despite the past millennia. Finding wooden structures of such ancient times was simply not possible earlier, they did not stand the test of time.
And the Suita wooden road seemed so new, as if it had just been built. This happened because peat turned out to be an excellent protector of the tree from the environment. He "mothballed" the road, did not let the boards and beams dry and crumble, protected the wood from harmful bacteria and fungi.
As a result, scientists were able to study the ancient structure in its original form. The archaeologists who have restored the ancient road have done a tremendous job of researching the way of life and life of people who once paved bridges over the swamps. In addition, they found out exactly what plants grew in England 6,000 years ago.
It was discovered that ancient builders used trees of 10 species for the road that had grown earlier in these places. At the same time, it turned out that forestry skills were not alien to the ancient unknown tribe. Trees were cleverly cut down, only those that were suitable for construction, while the ancient tribe managed not to damage the undergrowth.
The main materials were oak and ash - while the girth of some trees was about a meter. At felled trees, branches were first chopped off and the bark was ripped off, then the trunks were split lengthwise, making narrow boards. The supporting structure of the road consisted of long beams reinforced with pointed stakes. Planks were laid on top, on which one could safely walk through the water.
Sacrificial ax
The ancient people who used this road found it difficult enough to make their way along narrow bridges, trying not to catch on sharp stakes, so they often made awkward movements.
This is evidenced by the many objects found along the Suita road. Apparently, they were dropped into the water by gaping travelers. The bulk of the finds were silicon wafers.
Archaeologists have determined that they were used for cutting trees, reeds and some other mysterious plants, the breed and origin of which has not yet been determined, since nothing of the kind has ever been found, not only in England, but throughout the world. Probably six thousand years ago, trees grew in England, which later could not survive the local climate and disappeared forever from the face of the earth …
Archaeologists also found two axes - of flint and jet. There were no signs of use on them, and the researchers concluded that they were probably thrown into the water for some ritual purpose, most likely at the beginning of work on the construction of the road …
Among other things, research was carried out on some items that are well preserved in the peat. Clay shards testified that already six thousand years ago, well-developed crafts existed in England, and people communicated with other tribes - since the shape of the products resembled dishes from distant regions.
And the remains of insects found along the road indicated that the fauna was somewhat different here. This is due to the fact that before our era the climate in these places was somewhat different. Winters were more severe, but summer, on the contrary, was hotter than now.
Needless to say, all discoveries turned out to be a significant contribution to world science. And the road of Suita still remains under the scrutiny of scientists who continue to explore it, constantly discovering new finds that enrich world history …
Natalia Trubinovskaya