Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T12:05:38.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric Roads and Tracks in Somerset, England: 3. The Sweet Track1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

John M. Coles ,
F. A. Hibbert ,
Bryony J. Orme ,
M. Pettit ,
D. Rushton  and
V. R. Switsur
John M. Coles
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
F. A. Hibbert
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Liverpool Polytechnic
Bryony J. Orme
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Exeter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The excavation of the Sweet track at two sites in the Somerset Levels has yielded unique material of the late fourth millennium bc. The track was built across a reed marsh, and the builders used a variety of timber obtained from both nearby fen-wood and from the dry land of the Burtle sand and the Poldens. Pollen analyses indicate that certain areas of the Levels were particularly favourable for forest clearance and cultivation, and the debris from the track shows a range of woodwork so far unique to the British Neolithic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 39 , December 1973 , pp. 256 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

ApSimon, A. M., 1969. ‘An Early Neolithic house in Co. Tyrone’, JRSAI, 99, 165–8.Google Scholar
Clapham, A. R. and Godwin, H., 1948. ‘Studies of the post-glacial history of British vegetation. VIII. Swamping surfaces in peats of the Somerset Levels. IX. Prehistoric tracks in the Somerset Levels’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., B, 233, 233–73.Google Scholar
Clark, J. G. D., 1963. ‘Neolithic bows from Somerset, England, and the prehistory of archery in north-west Europe’, PPS, 29, 50–98.Google Scholar
Clements, C. F., 1971. ‘Excavation, fieldwork and finds. Neolithic. Burtle’, Archaeological Review, 6, 16 (C.B.A. Groups XII and XIII).Google Scholar
Coles, J. M., 1968. ‘A Neolithic god-dolly from Somerset, England’, Antiquity, 42, 275–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, J. M., 1972. ‘Later Bronze Age activity in the Somerset Levels’, Ant. J., 52, 269–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, J. M., and Hibbert, F. A., 1968. ‘Prehistoric roads and tracks in Somerset, England. 1. Neolithic’, PPS, 34, 238–58.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M., and Hibbert, F. A., 1972. ‘A Neolithic wooden mallet from the Somerset Levels’, Antiquity, 46, 52–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Coles, J. M., and Hibbert, F. A., 1973. ‘The Somerset Levels’, in Fowler, P. J. (ed), Recent Work in Rural Archaeology. Adams and Dart, Bath.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M., Hibbert, F. A., and Clements, C. F., 1970. ‘Prehistoric roads and tracks in Somerset, England. 2. Neolithic’, PPS, 36, 125–51.Google Scholar
Dewar, H. S. L. and Godwin, H., 1963. ‘Archaeological discoveries in the raised bogs of the Somerset Levels, England’, PPS, 29, 17–49.Google Scholar
Dimbleby, G. W., 1967. Plants and Archaeology. John Baker, London.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., 1940. ‘Studies of the post-glacial history of British vegetation. III. Fenland pollen diagrams. IV. Post-glacial changes of relative land and sea level in the English fenland’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B, 230, 239–303.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., 1941. ‘Studies of the post-glacial history of British vegetation. VI. Correlations in the Somerset Levels’, New Phytol, 40, 108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godwin, H., 1948. ‘Studies of the post-glacial history of British vegetation. X. Correlation between climate, forest composition, prehistoric agriculture and peat stratigraphy in Sub-Boreal and Sub-Atlantic peats of the Somerset Levels’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., B, 233, 275–86.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., 1960. ‘Prehistoric wooden trackways of the Somerset Levels: their construction, age and relation to climatic change’, PPS, 26, 1–36.Google Scholar
Hayen, H., 1971. ‘Holzerne Kultfiguren am Bohlenweg XLII (Ip) im Wittemoor’, Die Kunde, 22.Google Scholar
Hosier, , 1880. ‘Section of strata near Shapwick’, Proc. Som. Arch. Nat. Hist. Soc., 26, 126.Google Scholar
Jane, F. W., 1970. The Structure of Wood. Adam and Charles Black, London.Google Scholar
Müller-Beck, H., 1965. ‘Holzgeräte und Holzbearbeitung. Seeberg Burgäschisee-Süd 5’, Acta Bernensia, 2.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1954. Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles. C.U.P., Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pospisil, L., 1963. Kapauku Papuan Economy. Yale.Google Scholar
Powell, T. G. E., Oldfield, F. and Corcoran, J. X. W. P., 1971. ‘Excavations in Zone VII peat at Storrs Moss, Lancashire, England’, PPS, 37, 112–37.Google Scholar
Richardson, L., 1928. Wells and Springs of Somerset. H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Sieveking, G., Bush, P., Ferguson, J., Craddock, P. T., Hughes, M. J. and Cowell, M. R., 1971. ‘Prehistoric flint mines and their identification as sources of raw material’, Archaeometry, 14, 151–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, I. F., 1971. ‘Causewayed enclosures’, in Simpson, D. D. A. (ed), Economy and Settlement in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain and Europe. Leicester U.P., Leicester.Google Scholar
Vogt, E., 1954. Pfahlbaustudien. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte. Schaffhausen.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J., 1960. ‘Three microlithic industries from south-west England and their affinities’, PPS, 26, 193–201.Google Scholar
Wild, J. P., 1970. Textile Manufacture in the Northern Roman Provinces. C.U.P., Cambridge.Google Scholar
Woodburn, J., 1970. Hunters and Gatherers, the material culture of the Hadza. B.M., London.Google Scholar