Revealed: Cleethorpes' Neolithic History
Post date: Nov 23, 2015 11:11:36 PM
Over 4000 years ago in the Neolithic the coastline at Cleethorpes was much further to the east than it is today. During this period the area was covered by a dense forest dominated by oak trees. Throughout the Neolithic and into the Bronze Age the local sea level continued to rise, flooding the oak forest and creating a fen carr environment; a landscape dominated by small islands of dryland interspersed with boggy marsh. As the surrounding water level increased during the Bronze Age any organic material falling into pools of water only partially decomposed, creating a thick layer of peat which help to preserve the remains of the forest. At low tide the remains of these fallen trees and stumps can be seen littered across the foreshore, surrounded by the peatshelf.
The peatshelf east of Wonderland Groyne
In 2013 one of the surviving tree stumps was radio carbon dated to between 2915 BC and 2299 BC (late Neolithic of early Bronze Age). A short while later Humber Field Archaeology dated two further timbers from the foreshore; one was a possible worked timber that dated to between 2880 BC and 2506 BC (late Neolithic). The second timber was a loose branch recovered from the peatshelf that dated to between 2910 BC and 2670 BC.
The fen carr landscape was used by prehistoric people for fishing, fowling and hunting as well as for gathering wetland plants such as sphagnum moss. Evidence for this exploitation has been recovered from the peatshelf for several years and includes flint blades, arrowheads and axe heads. Most spectacularly a shafted axe-head was discovered from the peatshelf in 1986. The remains of the haft were radio carbon dated to approximately 1400 BC.
One of the flint blades recovered during CITiZAN’s visits to Cleethorpes. (Copyright H Winfield)
As their environment got wetter prehistoric people would have created trackways to help them move about the landscape more easily. Early in 2015 CITiZAN identified one of these trackways eroding out of the peatshelf on our first visit to Cleethorpes. In September we returned to the foreshore and aided by local volunteers recorded a short section of the trackway, along with a possible piece of wattlework. The area of trackway recorded measured approximately 1m by 1.5m in length and consisted of a single northeast-southwest orientated timber overlain by three east-west orientated timbers. All four timbers were roughly hewn and showed signs of working, with two of them being oak.
The trackway being recorded
During the cleaning of the area around the possible wattlework a piece of pottery was recovered by one of our volunteers, which will hopefully turn out to be Bronze Age in date. Whether the timber here is part of a wattle structure or not will have to wait till further investigation is possible.
As well as recording the trackway our volunteers helped us to start surveying the remains of the submerged forest, recording the size and position of the fallen trees and stumps as well as looking for signs of human interactions on them such as felling marks or burning.
Volunteers recording the submerged forest
In the future we are excited to be returning to complete the recording of the submerge forest and to investigate the possible wattlework further. As well as looking forward to getting some radio carbon dates for the trackway. We will also be keeping our eyes peeled for more flints and pottery, whenever we visit the foreshore. We hope to see you there in the near future.
Andy Sherman, CITiZAN archaeologist for training, North of England