Today, Carole and I decided to go
to Flag Fen. Flag Fen is an open museum with replica Bronze Age and Iron Agedwellings. These abodes are inside compounds with goats and other things symbolic
of the ancient Celtic Britons that lived in such places.
Upon first entering the grounds,
I thought everything looked a little basic, but we did have great constructions
of the Bronze Age hut from around 2,500 BC to 800 BC. Also the Iron Age hut of
700 BC to 43 AD when the Romans invaded.
Because I have written a novel
about a fictional meeting between Boudicca of Iceni and Cartimandua ofBrigantes, I was especially interested in seeing the place. It full filled my anticipations
for photographing, as expected, but there was this incredible bonus factor that
I had not fore seen and was totally ignorant of. Because I was so focused on
the replica Celtic dwellings, I might have missed the reason for Flag Fen
Museum’s existence.
When Carole and I entered, the
lady at the entrance complex asked if we might pay an extra £2 on top of the £5
entrance fee. This was for a guided tour which would commence at 11 pm. I just
wanted to snap a few photos of the replica dwellings, but I felt compelled to
offer an extra £2 for the tour. It was, after all, very cheap. Wow! I was so pleased I did.
The significance of Flag Fen Museum
was that it is built upon the sight of a gigantic wooden causeway that
stretched for several miles. This wooden built palisade bridge went across bits
of pasture and scattered lakes that rose and fell according to the seasons. The
Fenlands is very flat with some of it below sea level. In these ancient times,
British tribes, mainly Iceni, and what went before them sought their living
upon this marshy expanse. This is the very place where I live today.
This wooden causeway was a
superstructure of engineering in that time. The people or communities that
lived in these times were very affluent with their herds of goats and other agricultural
pastimes. The Fens gave them a great living where the difference of four feet
of height to a land area could mean so much. You must also realise that these
people lived this way of life with their treasured causeway for around 2,000
years. This wooden structure was maintained for that period of time. Therefore
the wood would have been constantly attended too. This was engineering upon a
scale that is equal to or in excess of Stonehenge for stone does not need the
constant attention that the wooden causeways needed. This was constructed
during the time of Mesopotamia and when Tutankhamun was alive. OK, this (Flag
Fen) can’t compare with such civilizations but this Flag Fen was still exceptional
for its place and time – prehistory people who had no written word.
In this time the Fens were more susceptible
to the rise and flow of the tides and in winter huge meadows became lakes
forming scattered islands, where the dwellers lived with their herds through
winter, waiting for the summer when the waters receded and allowed for the
flocks to graze on the pastures after the waters had gone. These islands were
linked by wooden palisade causeways. The whole area was full of huge lakes and
scattered islands linked by causeway bridges in the winter.
The Celtic people of this time
used the ways of the Fenlands to fish, grow crops on higher fertile grounds and
herd goats and sheep too. They did not do this on a small scale according to
the guide showing us about. They did it on a huge scale. There were thousands
upon thousands of goats and sheep and the fish and eel catching was on a huge
trading scale. This industry went on from 2, 800 when the Beaker people brought
the concept of smelting bronze to Ancient Britain until 40 AD when the Roman
Empire destroyed the commerce and industry and replaced it with a new one. What
I’m trying to say is that industry and commerce was thriving in the Fenlands
and they traded with the known world from 2800 BC onwards.
This gigantic causeway that was
used and maintained for 2,000 years would have been something to behold. Even
in 700 BC when it was abandoned because of rising waters, the locals still used
the causeway for ceremonial purposes. The stake and stumps protruding from the
grounds are littered with broken swords and other broken artefacts. These
broken relics were offering to the Gods. Often tools or weapons or jewellery
was broken so that it would go into the afterlife as an offering to the Gods.
The causeway was again discovered
and unveiled when a giant PowerStation was being built. The grounds men,
digging the foundations, came across what was either the end or the beginning
of this ancient superstructure where the joist foundations were discovered in
the mud. Close by is a place called Much Farm where more artefacts linked to
the causeway have been discovered. The surrounding Fens are a treasure trove
and the museums have many things of domestic life for the Celtic Britons who
lived here. They were a very vein people who like to look good. They wore make
up and painted their bodies. The men had special girdles that they had to be
able to fit into. This encouraged them to keep a fitness programme. During the Bronze
Age they were not particularly warlike, though they would have had skirmishes,
but by the Iron Age they did develop into a more warlike tribal community with
land borders. These became the Iceni.
This discovery at the power
station and that of a man investigating the man-made drainage dykes of a latter
age, triggered off a sequence of events where archaeologists began to follow
the giant palisade causeway’s line. People continue to find many artefacts
The Flag Fen palisade causeway went across a vast lake and over an island halfway. This island was the size of two football pitches.
The Flag Fen palisade causeway went across a vast lake and over an island halfway. This island was the size of two football pitches.
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| Bird's eye view of Flag Fen palisade causeway |
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