The Must Farm boats preview

I was absolutely delighted to be invited to the preview of a very special archaeological discovery this afternoon - the amazingly preserved Bronze Age material from Must Farm in Cambridgeshire.  Now, as a Romanist I confess that some elements of prehistory leave me a little cold, but some discoveries are simply astounding - and this one is right up there with the best of them.

The Must Farm site sits on the edge of the fens, within a modern brick pit, and on a stretch of the prehistoric River Nene.  The waterlogged deposits have preserved a wonderful and complex landscape, complete with fish weirs, dwellings, timber post alignments, tools, weapons and burials - the majority of which are preserved in incredible condition.  The excavations have been carried out by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, but it seems that the support and assistance of the landowner, Hanson, and English Heritage has been crucial.

The preview event was held at Flag Fen, part of the same prehistoric fenland landscape as Must Farm and itself one of the most important Bronze Age sites in Europe.  Flag Fen is the new home to the most iconic of the finds, 8 complete or near complete log boats, the largest of which being an immense 9m in length.  The boats, made from oak, alder and (uniquely I think) lime, are about to embark on a lengthy conservation process within a newly constructed, and publicly visible, cold store.  The conservation process for the boats and the other amazing finds (such as the Iron Age sword with surviving wooden handle and willow scabbard) is being carried out by the York Archaeological Trust.

The boats will undergo 2 or 3 years worth of assessment and treatment at Flag Fen, before hopefully then being moved to a more permanent display at Flag fen or elsewhere.  One thing I rather liked was the name that has been given to each boat, though I have to confess that whereas I understand names like 'Dorothy' or 'Belinda', 'Toppled McClary' and 'French Albert - the Fifth Musketeer' left me wondering quite what the excavators were smoking at the time!

The site is far too detailed to go into here, and I wouldn't want to use images that I don't have permission for, so I'd urge you to head over to the official website for the project and have a good look at the wonderful objects and very well written descriptions over there.  In the meantime, here are some of my photos from the afternoon, both of the boats and around Flag Fen, including the newly redesigned museum displays.

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Stories from The Collection #6 - 'Bronze Age gold penannular ring'

This is the sixth in a series of posts about recent acquisitions to the collections of The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire.

This article was published in the Winter 2012/2013 issue of ‘Lincolnshire Past and Present’ magazine, published by the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology.

The Collection has recently acquired a new example of Bronze Age goldworking, found in Lincolnshire and reported as Treasure, increasing the number of these important early pieces in the museum’s collections.

In September 2011 a metal detector user discovered a Bronze Age gold penannular ring at Welton, northeast of Lincoln.  The ring, measuring only 15mm in diameter and weighing 10.67 grams, consists of three solid strands of gold soldered together.  X-ray fluorescence analysis at the British Museum’s Department of Conservation and Scientific Research revealed that the surface of the ring consisted of 83-85% gold, 14-15% silver and approximately 1% copper.

The ring is superficially similar to a growing number of Bronze Age penannular rings found in Britain, and to the only other example currently known from Lincolnshire – found at Gayton le Marsh and now also in the collections of The Collection.  The rings date from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (c.1,300-1,000 BC) and are therefore indicative of the earliest uses of gold found in Britain.

The purpose of these penannular rings is still not fully understood.  Solid examples (consisting only of one thicker piece of gold), are often referred to as ‘ring money’ and thought to be an early form of currency. Another suggestion has been that they were worn in the hair as ornaments.  Of course, it is misleading to draw a firm line between ‘currency’ and ‘jewellery’, as an object of value designed to be traded or given in gift exchanges could also be worn as high status jewellery.  Important finds in Cambridgeshire, Berkshire and Norfolk of penannular rings threaded onto gold wire have provided an alternative method of wearing or storing such rings.  In these instances, 6 or 7 rings were found together.

The Collection would like to thank the Friends of Lincoln Museums and Art Gallery for their kind support in enabling the museum to purchase this important object.

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