A thing I run into when talking to people, is the notion that our Iron & Bronze Age ancestors weren’t as ingenuous and inventive as us - bollocks! Britons of the distant past were just as clever, in many ways! An example I like to give is Flag Fen, in Cambridgeshire. THREAD /1 
The thing about Cambridgeshire in the millennium before Christ is, it was a relatively bustling place. There was a community at Must Farm nearby and paths through the area used by traders. One trackway led to an island in the fens, called Northey, used for ritual purposes. /2
A changing climate led to this trackway being covered by rising waters by the 13th century BCE. Undeterred, the locals went to an extraordinary effort to ensure that they could continue to worship there. They used wood - some from many miles away - to construct a 1km causeway. /3
The causeway was constructed using wood piles driven deep into the mud of the fen, with timbers laid across the top. Access to the island was increased by creating a platform around it. This allowed the Bronze Age inhabitants continue their worship despite the inundation. /4
We know that the island was a ritual site for two reasons. First, in the waters around the island many pieces of jewelry, bones, daggers, swords, arrowheads and other desirable goods were found. Many showed signs of deliberate destruction, a sure sign of ritual offering. /5
The second reason that we know Northey was used as a ritual site are the small barrows that have been found on the island. It seems this was a place for the elite dead, away from where others might be interred - a very sacred, special place. /6
Something happened at Flag Fen as the Bronze Age ended - quite possibly a fire - and the site was abandoned. Over time, traces sank into the fen and peat, where a lack of oxygen and microbes meant that it was preserved. /7
Flag Fen was discovered by Frances Pryor, a bit of a legend of British archaeology in the early eighties. A crowdfunded dig in 2012 revealed the true extent of the site and its significance. Work still continues there today, with new discoveries being made. /8
You can visit Flag Fen - in fact, it’s very much encouraged! There’s a visitor centre, where you can see the timbers, preserved in a special environment so they don’t dry out. There’s also heaps of artefacts on display, and replica Bronze Age homes. /9 visitpeterborough.com/todo/thedms.as…
You can learn more about Flag Fen here, and there are plenty of journal articles online that describe various aspects of the site. /10 peterborougharchaeology.org/peterborough-a…
So you see, our ancestors were just as canny and clever as we are when presented with a problem - it’s problematic to consider them any cognitively slower than their descendants, millennia later. Here’s to you, Bronze Age inhabitants of the fens, you’re alright! /11
I hope you liked that one, and there’s plenty more to come. Mulling a project to tell these stories in new ways. Also considering a little book of strange and mysterious archaeological finds - publishers, let me know if you’d like to chat! /FIN
PS. Just so we're clear, the platform is on the way to the island, allowing more to gather there. It made use of an island (possibly artificial?) as its base.
