Seahenge
Encyclopedia
Seahenge, which is also known as Holme I, was a prehistoric
monument located in the village of Holme-next-the-Sea
, near Old Hunstanton
in the English county of Norfolk
. A timber circle
with an upturned tree root in the centre, Seahenge was apparently built in the 21st century BC
E, during the early Bronze Age
in Britain, most likely for ritual purposes.
The site consisted of an outer ring comprising fifty-five small split oak trunks forming a roughly circular enclosure around 7 by. Rather than being placed in individual holes, the timbers had been arranged around a circular construction trench. Their split sides faced inwards and their bark faced outwards (with one exception where the opposite is the case). One of the trunks on the south western side had a narrow Y fork in it, permitting access to the central area. Another post had been placed outside this entrance, which would have prevented anyone from seeing inside. The timbers were set in ground to a depth of 1 metre from the contemporary surface although how far they originally extended upwards is not known. In the centre of the ring was a large inverted oak stump.
Upon discovery in 1998, Seahenge, which received its name from the press, who named it after the more famous prehistoric structure Stonehenge
in Wiltshire
, was picked up by the local and national media, inducing a great deal of publicity around its excavation. This was only increased due to the protests held against the excavation by both locals, who wanted it to remain as a tourist site, and Neopagans
, who believed that the removal of the structure was an insult to the religious beliefs of its original builders.
and sedentary living in Britain.
Using a variety of scientific techniques, archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the trees used in the construction of the monument had all been felled in the same year, 2049 BCE,Dendrochronological
evidence provided by Cathy Groves indicated that the trees had to have been felled in either 2454 BCE, 2049 BCE or 2019 BCE whilst radiocarbon dating
displayed a date range of between 2200 BCE and 2000 BCE for their felling. Using the Bayesian estimation however, an English Heritage team led by Dr Alex Bayliss combined the dendrochronological and radiocarbon dates to reveal that the trees had been felled in the year 2049 BCE. whilst the condition of the sapwood indicated that it had been cut down in spring or early summer. According to writer Charlie Watson, "Confirming that all the trees had been felled at the same time suggested strongly that the building of the circle was a single event. Further, a great amount of work, would have been involved in felling, transporting, preparing and erecting the timbers, so it was likely too that the job was done by a large number of people - possibly an entire community or an extended family - working together."
Those constructing the monument made use of at least fifty different bronze axes,The fact that over fifty different bronze axes were used in the construction of Seahenge was discovered through 3-D imaging which allowed archaeologists to measure the exact axe curvature and width of each blade that had made a cut in the timber. This revealed that 59 different blades had been used. which were used to shape the timber to the desired lengths and shapes, at a time when, archaeologists believe, bronze tools were still relatively rare and had only been introduced to Britain a few centuries before.
Originally constructed on a salt marsh
, over the centuries the area became a freshwater wetland, as an offshore barrier grew up, preventing sea water from getting access to the area around the circle. This in turn allowed alder
trees to grow in the area, which eventually created a layer of peat
above the mudflats. With rising sea levels in later millennia, the sea advanced, and eventually sand began to cover the peat. Through this process, Seahenge eventually found itself from once being inland to being on the beach, where it was revealed by the eroding away of the sand and peat by the late 20th century, four thousand years since its original construction.
Theories about the site have focused on the idea of inversion, as represented by the upside-down central tree stump and the single post turned 180 degrees from the others within the circle itself. The theme of inversion has been noticed in some Early Bronze Age burials. Not all the split posts can be accounted for and it has been suggested that another structure was built nearby using them.
Seahenge is so named by analogy with Stonehenge and does not possess an extant henge
and appears to have had little functionally in common with its namesake. The contemporary ground surface associated with the monument has long since been washed away meaning no associated features survive and the silt Seahenge stood in when found considerably postdates the timber circle. It is thought that Seahenge was a mortuary enclosure
for the use of excarnation
rather than a henge.
ist to see if he could identify the axe head, who recognised what it was, and so they contacted the Castle Museum in Norwich
. Archaeologists working at the museum examined the axe head, and noted that it was the second that had been found on the Holme Beach over the previous few months. Meanwhile, Lorimer had continued to monitor the lone tree stump on the beach, and when the gradual erosion showed that it was surrounded by a ring of wooden posts, he realised that it was definitely a man-made construction, and so contacted Castle Museum once more.
The museum got in contact with Edwin Rose, who was then Norfolk Landscape Archaeology's Development Control Officer, who subsequently went and met with Lorimer, who took him to see the site on 12 August 1998. However, upon initially seeing it, Rose suspected that it was in fact a fish trap dating from the Anglo-Saxon
period, which were relatively common in the area. Nonetheless, thinking it over, he began to suspect that it might be something different, and that it would be worth investigating, and so he contacted the government agency English Heritage
, to see if they would fund an excavation. They duly agreed to do so, allowing the excavation to begin.
data that had been collected from the wood was sent for analysis at Sheffield University, who by January 1999 had developed their preliminary results, indicating that the monument dated from the Bronze Age. Following the trial excavation, English Heritage decided that whilst it would be very expensive, it would be worth financing a full excavation of the site, because it had begun to suffer from erosion after parts of it had been exposed to the oxygen in the air and the salt in the brine after millennia of being buried under the mud.
Initially, there was little media interest in the excavation, with it only being reported in archaeological publications like the Council of British Archaeology's British Archaeology magazine and a few local Norfolk-based media outlets. However, this changed when The Independent
chose the story for a front-page headline written by their environment correspondent, Michael McCarthy, that ran "Shifting Sands Reveal 'Stonehenge of the Sea'" on Saturday 9 January. The Independents article sparked off the publication of a variety of other articles in rival newspapers, with the Eastern Daily Press picking up the story for a two-page feature entitled "Our Stonehenge Beneath the Sea" on Monday 11 January. These stories cemented the idea of the monument being similar to Stonehenge, one of England’s national treasures, despite the many differences between the two sites, and eventually it gained the popular title of "Seahenge". Soon a great debate began in the media, with some adherents involved in the Neopagan
and New Age
movements arguing that they had "a kind of spiritual ownership of the circle", and they wanted it left in situ, and not disturbed by further archaeological excavation. Local tourist organisations also wanted it left in situ, believing that it would bring visitors to the area who would wish to see it. The idea of tourists visiting the beach to see the monument however brought criticism from local wildlife organisations such as the Norfolk Wildlife Trust
, who noted how within the first three months of 1999, five thousand visitors had come to see the monument, disturbing feeding wader birds in what was the Holme Dunes National Nature Reserve.
Whilst the press were putting forward ideas of saving and preserving the monument where it was, something archaeologists noted as being impossible, English Heritage's chief archaeologist, Geoffrey Wainright, eventually gave the go ahead for a full excavation in March 1999. The procedure would cost £500,000, and the timbers would be conserved at the Fenland Archaeological Trust's field centre at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire
. Excavation began on Wednesday 26 May 1999, by a team from Norfolk Archaeological Unit led by Mark Brennand, and once again they found it to be a particularly daunting and difficult site: they were only able to excavate for a few hours a day due to the tides, and much of that was taken up with removing the water that had built up overnight, alongside the various fish and other animals that had set up residence there. The excavators also had to contend with protests mounted both by locals and by Neopagan groups, which were led by the Chairman of the Parish Council, Geoff Needham, a former fisherman. English Heritage had taken part in meetings with protest groups, but neither had agreed to change their position on the issue. One of the most vocal protestors, the Neopagan and conservationist Buster Nolan, informed a reporter from the Eastern Daily Press that "Seahenge has more meaning and power on the beach here at Holme than it does anywhere else… This is 60 grand being spent by archaeologists who are patting each other on the back, telling each other they're doing the right thing. It's a farce." Nolan went on to employ some local solicitors in an attempt to get the courts to intercede on the protestors' behalf, receiving donations from the Council of British Druid Orders and from a local businessman, Mervyn Lambert, who told reporters that "The people of Norfolk should have more balls… I'm amazed they're allowing it to happen." Nonetheless, the solicitors refused to take up the case, believing that they could not possibly win against English Heritage.
Attempting to rid themselves of the problem of the protestors, English Heritage gained an interim injunction banning a series of the most prominent protestors from the vicinity of the site, including Des Crow, Geoff Needham, Buster Nolan and Rollo Maughfling, the self-declared "Archdruid of Stonehenge and Glastonbury", who at one point and climbed on top of Seahenge to declare an eight-point proclamation. Needham and Maughfling however successfully contested the ban, as the court agreed that neither of them had attempted to obstruct the archaeologists' work. The publicity and controversy surrounding the excavation led the British television company Channel 4
to commission a special documentary episode of their archaeological series Time Team
in which the excavation at Seahenge would be documented and a reconstruction of what the site would have originally looked like built. After several weeks work, the excavators decided to physically remove the main timbers from the site, an event for which the media had been tipped off, and so a wide variety of protestors turned up, along with a group of police officers to ensure that they did not cause trouble for the excavators. However, as the central tree stump was being pulled out by a digger, a young female protestor ran under the rope cordoning off the site and headed towards the excavation until she was restrained by excavators and then by police.
in Cambridgeshire, where it immediately underwent conservation by being immersed in fresh water
. The timbers were then cleaned of all the mud that had attached itself before being placed into permanent storage. A new laser-scanning technology developed by Alistair Carty and his company Archaeoptics was then employed by English Heritage that developed accurate three-dimensional records of the timbers, allowing archaeologists to create a virtual model of the whole site.
At Flag Fen, it was then continually soaked in wax-emulsified water to slowly (over years) replace the moisture in the wood with wax. It was later transferred to Portsmouth
where maritime archaeology experts at the Mary Rose
Trust continued the programme at their purpose-built site. Conservation work is complete, with a recreated Seahenge near its original site, at the refurbished Lynn Museum in King's Lynn
and opened to the public in April 2008.
lined pit containing two oak logs. Known as Holme II, it dates to the centuries before Holme I (c. 2400-2030 BC) although the two sites may have been in use together. Although also threatened with destruction by the sea, this site has been left in situ and exposed to the tidal actions of the sea. Archaeologists have suggested that this decision by English Heritage relates to the controversy over digging Holme I.
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
monument located in the village of Holme-next-the-Sea
Holme-next-the-Sea
Holme-next-the-Sea is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north Norfolk coast some 5 km north-east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, 30 km north of the town of King's Lynn and 70 km north-west of the city of Norwich.The civil...
, near Old Hunstanton
Old Hunstanton
Old Hunstanton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 47 in 25 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of North Norfolk....
in the English county of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. A timber circle
Timber circle
In archaeology, timber circles are circular arrangements of wooden posts interpreted as being either complexes of freestanding totem poles or as the supports for large circular buildings-British Isles:...
with an upturned tree root in the centre, Seahenge was apparently built in the 21st century BC
21st century BC
The 21st century BC is a century which lasted from the year 2100 BC to 2001 BC.- Events :Note: all dates from this long ago should be regarded as either approximate or conjectural; there are no absolutely certain dates, and multiple competing reconstructed chronologies, for this time period.* c....
E, during the early Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
in Britain, most likely for ritual purposes.
The site consisted of an outer ring comprising fifty-five small split oak trunks forming a roughly circular enclosure around 7 by. Rather than being placed in individual holes, the timbers had been arranged around a circular construction trench. Their split sides faced inwards and their bark faced outwards (with one exception where the opposite is the case). One of the trunks on the south western side had a narrow Y fork in it, permitting access to the central area. Another post had been placed outside this entrance, which would have prevented anyone from seeing inside. The timbers were set in ground to a depth of 1 metre from the contemporary surface although how far they originally extended upwards is not known. In the centre of the ring was a large inverted oak stump.
Upon discovery in 1998, Seahenge, which received its name from the press, who named it after the more famous prehistoric structure Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, was picked up by the local and national media, inducing a great deal of publicity around its excavation. This was only increased due to the protests held against the excavation by both locals, who wanted it to remain as a tourist site, and Neopagans
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
, who believed that the removal of the structure was an insult to the religious beliefs of its original builders.
Construction
Seahenge was constructed during the Early Bronze Age, a period of time that saw the increasing adoption of agricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and sedentary living in Britain.
Using a variety of scientific techniques, archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the trees used in the construction of the monument had all been felled in the same year, 2049 BCE,Dendrochronological
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...
evidence provided by Cathy Groves indicated that the trees had to have been felled in either 2454 BCE, 2049 BCE or 2019 BCE whilst radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
displayed a date range of between 2200 BCE and 2000 BCE for their felling. Using the Bayesian estimation however, an English Heritage team led by Dr Alex Bayliss combined the dendrochronological and radiocarbon dates to reveal that the trees had been felled in the year 2049 BCE. whilst the condition of the sapwood indicated that it had been cut down in spring or early summer. According to writer Charlie Watson, "Confirming that all the trees had been felled at the same time suggested strongly that the building of the circle was a single event. Further, a great amount of work, would have been involved in felling, transporting, preparing and erecting the timbers, so it was likely too that the job was done by a large number of people - possibly an entire community or an extended family - working together."
Those constructing the monument made use of at least fifty different bronze axes,The fact that over fifty different bronze axes were used in the construction of Seahenge was discovered through 3-D imaging which allowed archaeologists to measure the exact axe curvature and width of each blade that had made a cut in the timber. This revealed that 59 different blades had been used. which were used to shape the timber to the desired lengths and shapes, at a time when, archaeologists believe, bronze tools were still relatively rare and had only been introduced to Britain a few centuries before.
Originally constructed on a salt marsh
Salt marsh
A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...
, over the centuries the area became a freshwater wetland, as an offshore barrier grew up, preventing sea water from getting access to the area around the circle. This in turn allowed alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
trees to grow in the area, which eventually created a layer of peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
above the mudflats. With rising sea levels in later millennia, the sea advanced, and eventually sand began to cover the peat. Through this process, Seahenge eventually found itself from once being inland to being on the beach, where it was revealed by the eroding away of the sand and peat by the late 20th century, four thousand years since its original construction.
Purpose
Researchers were unable to determine activity at Seahenge in the centuries after it was built, and its purpose is consequently unknown. However, the presence of Middle and Late Bronze Age pottery at the site suggests that it became a focal point again several centuries after construction.Theories about the site have focused on the idea of inversion, as represented by the upside-down central tree stump and the single post turned 180 degrees from the others within the circle itself. The theme of inversion has been noticed in some Early Bronze Age burials. Not all the split posts can be accounted for and it has been suggested that another structure was built nearby using them.
Seahenge is so named by analogy with Stonehenge and does not possess an extant henge
Henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork which are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a ring bank and ditch but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside...
and appears to have had little functionally in common with its namesake. The contemporary ground surface associated with the monument has long since been washed away meaning no associated features survive and the silt Seahenge stood in when found considerably postdates the timber circle. It is thought that Seahenge was a mortuary enclosure
Mortuary enclosure
A mortuary enclosure is a term given in archaeology and anthropology to an area, surrounded by a wood, stone or earthwork barrier, in which dead bodies are placed for excarnation and to await secondary and/or collective burial...
for the use of excarnation
Excarnation
In archaeology and anthropology, the term, excarnation , refers to the burial practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead, leaving only the bones....
rather than a henge.
Discovery, excavation and restoration
In early spring 1998, John Lorimer, a special-needs worker who was also an amateur archaeologist and beach comber, was on Holme beach with his brother-in-law Gary catching shrimps when he came across a Bronze Age axe head in the silt, but at the time did not know what it was. Intrigued, he revisited the same area on a number of other occasions, coming across a lone tree stump that had been unearthed on the beach, which he felt was unusual in that appeared to be upside down. He decided to call up a friend of his who was a metal detectorMetal detector
A metal detector is a device which responds to metal that may not be readily apparent.The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field...
ist to see if he could identify the axe head, who recognised what it was, and so they contacted the Castle Museum in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
. Archaeologists working at the museum examined the axe head, and noted that it was the second that had been found on the Holme Beach over the previous few months. Meanwhile, Lorimer had continued to monitor the lone tree stump on the beach, and when the gradual erosion showed that it was surrounded by a ring of wooden posts, he realised that it was definitely a man-made construction, and so contacted Castle Museum once more.
The museum got in contact with Edwin Rose, who was then Norfolk Landscape Archaeology's Development Control Officer, who subsequently went and met with Lorimer, who took him to see the site on 12 August 1998. However, upon initially seeing it, Rose suspected that it was in fact a fish trap dating from the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
period, which were relatively common in the area. Nonetheless, thinking it over, he began to suspect that it might be something different, and that it would be worth investigating, and so he contacted the government agency English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, to see if they would fund an excavation. They duly agreed to do so, allowing the excavation to begin.
Excavation and controversy
Archaeological excavation into Seahenge began in October 1998, under the leadership of site director Mark Brennand with the Norfolk Archaeological Unit; they however found it to be a particularly difficult site to excavate because being on a beach, the incoming and outgoing tide meant that they could only excavate in their trial trenches for between one and four hours each day. DendrochronologicalDendrochronology
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...
data that had been collected from the wood was sent for analysis at Sheffield University, who by January 1999 had developed their preliminary results, indicating that the monument dated from the Bronze Age. Following the trial excavation, English Heritage decided that whilst it would be very expensive, it would be worth financing a full excavation of the site, because it had begun to suffer from erosion after parts of it had been exposed to the oxygen in the air and the salt in the brine after millennia of being buried under the mud.
Initially, there was little media interest in the excavation, with it only being reported in archaeological publications like the Council of British Archaeology's British Archaeology magazine and a few local Norfolk-based media outlets. However, this changed when The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
chose the story for a front-page headline written by their environment correspondent, Michael McCarthy, that ran "Shifting Sands Reveal 'Stonehenge of the Sea'" on Saturday 9 January. The Independents article sparked off the publication of a variety of other articles in rival newspapers, with the Eastern Daily Press picking up the story for a two-page feature entitled "Our Stonehenge Beneath the Sea" on Monday 11 January. These stories cemented the idea of the monument being similar to Stonehenge, one of England’s national treasures, despite the many differences between the two sites, and eventually it gained the popular title of "Seahenge". Soon a great debate began in the media, with some adherents involved in the Neopagan
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
and New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movements arguing that they had "a kind of spiritual ownership of the circle", and they wanted it left in situ, and not disturbed by further archaeological excavation. Local tourist organisations also wanted it left in situ, believing that it would bring visitors to the area who would wish to see it. The idea of tourists visiting the beach to see the monument however brought criticism from local wildlife organisations such as the Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Norfolk Wildlife Trust
The Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norfolk, England, formerly known as the Norfolk Naturalists' Trust, is one of almost 50 wildlife trusts throughout the United Kingdom.Founded in 1926, it is the oldest of all the trusts....
, who noted how within the first three months of 1999, five thousand visitors had come to see the monument, disturbing feeding wader birds in what was the Holme Dunes National Nature Reserve.
Whilst the press were putting forward ideas of saving and preserving the monument where it was, something archaeologists noted as being impossible, English Heritage's chief archaeologist, Geoffrey Wainright, eventually gave the go ahead for a full excavation in March 1999. The procedure would cost £500,000, and the timbers would be conserved at the Fenland Archaeological Trust's field centre at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
. Excavation began on Wednesday 26 May 1999, by a team from Norfolk Archaeological Unit led by Mark Brennand, and once again they found it to be a particularly daunting and difficult site: they were only able to excavate for a few hours a day due to the tides, and much of that was taken up with removing the water that had built up overnight, alongside the various fish and other animals that had set up residence there. The excavators also had to contend with protests mounted both by locals and by Neopagan groups, which were led by the Chairman of the Parish Council, Geoff Needham, a former fisherman. English Heritage had taken part in meetings with protest groups, but neither had agreed to change their position on the issue. One of the most vocal protestors, the Neopagan and conservationist Buster Nolan, informed a reporter from the Eastern Daily Press that "Seahenge has more meaning and power on the beach here at Holme than it does anywhere else… This is 60 grand being spent by archaeologists who are patting each other on the back, telling each other they're doing the right thing. It's a farce." Nolan went on to employ some local solicitors in an attempt to get the courts to intercede on the protestors' behalf, receiving donations from the Council of British Druid Orders and from a local businessman, Mervyn Lambert, who told reporters that "The people of Norfolk should have more balls… I'm amazed they're allowing it to happen." Nonetheless, the solicitors refused to take up the case, believing that they could not possibly win against English Heritage.
Attempting to rid themselves of the problem of the protestors, English Heritage gained an interim injunction banning a series of the most prominent protestors from the vicinity of the site, including Des Crow, Geoff Needham, Buster Nolan and Rollo Maughfling, the self-declared "Archdruid of Stonehenge and Glastonbury", who at one point and climbed on top of Seahenge to declare an eight-point proclamation. Needham and Maughfling however successfully contested the ban, as the court agreed that neither of them had attempted to obstruct the archaeologists' work. The publicity and controversy surrounding the excavation led the British television company Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
to commission a special documentary episode of their archaeological series Time Team
Time Team
Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on Channel 4 since 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode features a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining...
in which the excavation at Seahenge would be documented and a reconstruction of what the site would have originally looked like built. After several weeks work, the excavators decided to physically remove the main timbers from the site, an event for which the media had been tipped off, and so a wide variety of protestors turned up, along with a group of police officers to ensure that they did not cause trouble for the excavators. However, as the central tree stump was being pulled out by a digger, a young female protestor ran under the rope cordoning off the site and headed towards the excavation until she was restrained by excavators and then by police.
Preservation
With Seahenge excavated, the timbers that it had been built out of were transported fifty miles away to the Fenland Archaeology Trust's field centre at Flag FenFlag Fen
Flag Fen near Peterborough, England is a Bronze Age site, probably religious. It comprises over 60,000 timbers arranged in five very long rows connecting Whittlesey Island with Peterborough across the wet fenland. Part way across the structure, a small island was formed which is where it is...
in Cambridgeshire, where it immediately underwent conservation by being immersed in fresh water
Fresh Water
Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...
. The timbers were then cleaned of all the mud that had attached itself before being placed into permanent storage. A new laser-scanning technology developed by Alistair Carty and his company Archaeoptics was then employed by English Heritage that developed accurate three-dimensional records of the timbers, allowing archaeologists to create a virtual model of the whole site.
At Flag Fen, it was then continually soaked in wax-emulsified water to slowly (over years) replace the moisture in the wood with wax. It was later transferred to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
where maritime archaeology experts at the Mary Rose
Mary Rose
The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...
Trust continued the programme at their purpose-built site. Conservation work is complete, with a recreated Seahenge near its original site, at the refurbished Lynn Museum in King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
and opened to the public in April 2008.
Holme II
One hundred metres east, another older ring has been found, consisting of two concentric timber circles surrounding a hurdleHurdle
A hurdle is a moveable section of light fence. Traditionally they were made from wattle , but modern hurdles are often made of metal. Hurdles are used for handling livestock, as decorative fencing, for horse racing and in the track and field event of hurdling.-Types:*Traditional hurdles are made...
lined pit containing two oak logs. Known as Holme II, it dates to the centuries before Holme I (c. 2400-2030 BC) although the two sites may have been in use together. Although also threatened with destruction by the sea, this site has been left in situ and exposed to the tidal actions of the sea. Archaeologists have suggested that this decision by English Heritage relates to the controversy over digging Holme I.
External links
- Pictures
- Pictures
- Conservation work at Flag Fen (from the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
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