The book I am listening to at the moment is The Fens by Francis Pryor. It is partly an autobiographical book but also about his archeological exploits in the East of this country, Flag Fen Neolithic Causeway and surrounding area, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire being the most important. His wife Maisie is also an archaeologist, or perhaps I should say a conservationist for she is the one that overlooks the preservation of the timber.
The greatest find in this part of the country was of course the timber 'Sea Henge' nestling by the sea in the sand at Holme-Next-To-The-Sea. Couldn't get any easier than that when trying to find the village! The movement of the sand dunes and the tides had uncovered it.
It was an exciting find made in 1998, there is hardly any stone in this part of the country so to find a wooden circle still standing was pretty amazing. It is not exactly a circle as a stone one would be, more likely a place where excarnation took place. For in the centre of the timbers was a large upturned trunk of a tree, its roots splayed out. Excarnation, probably practised in the Neolithic Age was the exposure of the dead body to the elements and birds, not a nice sight.
The tree itself holds a malign force but that could owe more to the imagination that the tree trunk, it needs a name to personify it.
To go back to the book and author. Francis Pryor also writes, who-dun-it books and now in his old age runs a small herd of sheep. They have a beautiful garden which is open each year for a charity. His archaeology is prehistoric and the fenlands of Cambridgeshire and beyond.
It was the landscape that caught the magic, silvery plants, hedging down the beach path, dunes stretching back to woods, so different to what I had experienced to that moment. The depth of the landscape flat and wild, going on into infinity. I can think of long beaches like the Gower or Newgale but there was always a backdrop and an end stop of cliffs. Flat land just dissolves into the distance.
I have a postcard of the Sea Henge in situ on the noticeboard in my kitchen, which I bought at Flag Fen. We visited when it was being preserved. We wandered into a building and looked into a tank of water with bits of wood at the bottom. I didn't know that it had been removed there and had no idea what the bits of wood were, but as I leant over the tank it felt like there was a physical presence there (sounds a bit woo-woo, I know!). I moved away and said to my husband "I don't know what that is, but it is powerful," and it was only then that we spotted the sign explaining what it was. It was a very weird experience, not frightening, but definitely memorable!
ReplyDeleteI think the darkness of the wood gives the feeling of dark presences Tracy. The wood is old and having been preserved in water has acquired an unique surface. The clays and watery fens conserved a lot of prehistory.
DeleteWood and stone were the building materials of the time, stone remains, wood disintegrates, water is a good preservative.
Locally we have strong views that the worst thing that ever happened was that somebody reported seeing the circle and told the archeologists. Locals often used to see it when the sands shifted and then it would be covered again and maybe not seen for months or years. And then would reappear. I still think it is sad that it was dug up and taken away and now stands in a museum away from its proper place to take its chance with the sea. The Cambridge archeologists said suddenly that it was going to be lost when everybody knew it was there and had never been lost to the sea.
ReplyDeleteDifficult decisions at the time I think Rachel. Having been 'discovered' it would have attracted people coming to see it and probably vandalism as well. I remember the controversy, neopagans and locals. Against this the curiosity of the archeologists, and their need for papers, books and pats on the back from the media in the end it got to the courts.
ReplyDeleteShould Sea Henge be in a museum? No but given the fact it received publicity it had to be saved for posterity.
Like so many things that you right about, they are things that I never had knowledge of. I went off for a wonderful read about Seahenge. The pictures were amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe photos of it in situ are rather scary, it was probably more of a burial place. When Sea henge was first put together I think the sea was about half a mile away.
Delete*write. My god.
DeleteThanks for the recommendation. I have just ordered The Fens by Francis Pryor. I think my husband will enjoy it being a Fenland boy. Jan Bx
ReplyDeleteHope your husband does enjoy it, though Pryor is not a fen man he has lived there for many years.
DeleteBeautiful shots, Those long flat expanses are heaven to me being a Lincolnshire lass.
ReplyDeleteVery different from the rest of the country Pat but picturesque in its own way.
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