Amazing find throws light on our Bronze age ancestors

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quidditys_shore

Tenderfoot
Feb 26, 2014
62
0
Middlesbrough
Same here. The fact that there's still food on the bowls (wonder what the meals were?!) shows how quick it happened.
Then there's the question, accident or deliberate?

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bobnewboy

Native
Jul 2, 2014
1,292
847
West Somerset
It looks like a fantastic find. It irks me however that when finds such as these turn up, people are always suprised to find such complexity and technology in times gone past. Ingenuity, dexterity and skill is not a modern human development, but has been with us for ever. Just my opinion, of course.
 

Nic Le Becheur

Forager
Sep 10, 2015
108
19
Ludlow
Fantastic to have the complete house structures, top to bottom. And evidence of actual meals.... Archaeologists tend to be a cautious breed, but I had to smile at this...
.
"Archaeologists digging two metres (6ft) below the modern surface at the quarry also found preserved footprints, believed to be from people who once lived there."

- if they don't have wellie treads, I'd say that was a pretty safe bet :)
 

Dreadhead

Bushcrafter through and through
It looks like a fantastic find. It irks me however that when finds such as these turn up, people are always suprised to find such complexity and technology in times gone past. Ingenuity, dexterity and skill is not a modern human development, but has been with us for ever. Just my opinion, of course.

absolutely agree, well said!

phwaw what I wouldn't give for that sword!
 

quietone

Full Member
May 29, 2011
820
93
Wales
Exciting times for those working there. Guess the volunteer places didn't last long. It says the dagger was discovered in the 60's, how come it's taken so long for them to get to this point? Was the site left alone after the dagger find?

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beezer

Forager
Oct 13, 2014
180
7
lockerbie
i think they only dig stuff up if the site is at risk. could be something to with technology to analisis what they find or maybe they didnt know what was there.

cant wait to see this stuff on display maybe we could organise a talk when the display comes out.
 

Old Bones

Settler
Oct 14, 2009
745
72
East Anglia
i think they only dig stuff up if the site is at risk. could be something to with technology to analisis what they find or maybe they didnt know what was there.

The money for excavating (and even more important, post excavation analysis, preservation and writing up) are not exactly plentiful, so if a developer isn't paying, its often because the site is about to fall into the sea, etc. In this case, the water levels are apparently falling (sadly, nothing new in this area), and so the site would dry out.

The reason why the dagger wasn't followed up is probably because it seemed to be a stray find at the time - someone noticed a possible post back in the 1990's, when the quarry was disused. Once the quarry was possibly about to come back into operation, it made sense to follow up the report. The preservation is excellent, since it not only has the classic 'wet wood in bog' preservation of nearby Flag Fen, but its also got the vitrification from the fire, which also meant that when the building fell into the river, you've got charing, the debris from the roof sealed the finds, and then it dropped into a river, which then preserved them.

I love the way that the BBC report has to show something nice and goldy from somewhere else, because although the site is fantastic for people like me, there are no cool bit of 'treasure' amoungst the finds. Still, thats nothing new.

I really should go out and have a look, its pretty close to us. However, its going to bore my kids rotten, since its a large shallow pit in the fens....
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
It's absolutely brilliant :D

It's just such a shame that there isn't money for the preservation of waterlogged sites and their artifacts :sigh:

Wonderful to find such a site though, to see the home life of the past so clearly :D

M
 

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