Flag Fen Peterborough
Flag Fen near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire is one of the most significant Bronze Age archaeological sites in Britain, a preserved wooden platform and post alignment dating from approximately 1300 to 900 BC that was discovered in 1982 and has been excavated and interpreted by archaeologist Francis Pryor in one of the most sustained and most publicly engaged excavation projects of the late twentieth century. The preserved wooden timbers of the Bronze Age structure survive beneath the fen peat in exceptional condition, and the site provides one of the most direct encounters with the Bronze Age world available in England.
The Bronze Age post alignment at Flag Fen extends for approximately one kilometre across the ancient fenland from Northey Island to the Peterborough shore, a structure of approximately 60,000 individual timber posts that represented an enormous investment of labour and resources by the farming communities of the Bronze Age fens. The function of the alignment is uncertain but the large number of metal objects, weapons and personal ornaments deliberately deposited in the water beside the alignment suggests a ritual or votive dimension to the structure, perhaps marking a boundary between the world of the living on the dry land and the watery world of the spirits in the fen.
The on-site museum and the active preservation work visible at the site provide the most direct public engagement with the Bronze Age environment of any comparable site in Britain, and the circular Iron Age roundhouse reconstructed at Flag Fen provides an excellent illustration of the domestic architecture of the period.