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Bronze Age spade is one of oldest wooden tools in Britain
An archaeological excavation on the outskirts of Poole Harbour in Dorset, southern England, has unearthed a spade that is one of the oldest and most complete wooden tools ever discovered in Britain. Radiocarbon dating of the wood found it was made in the Middle Bronze Age, about 3,500-3,400 years ago. Only one tool comparable to this one in age and function is known in Britain: the Brynlow Shovel, which was found by miners in an old shaft of the Alderley Edge copper mines in Cheshire in 1875. It is slightly older, dating to around 1750 B.C.
A team from Wessex Archaeology has been surveying the Moors at Arne site as part of a wetland habitat creation project. When the handle of the spade first emerged from the soil, archaeologists thought it might be a tree root. The outline of the spade was soon revealed, marking it as a worked wood tool. The soil at the coastal site is waterlogged and the anaerobic environment preserved the spade for thousands of years. To ensure its preservation after recovery, the spade was quickly transported to a Wessex Archaeology laboratory where it was cleaned and stabilized.
Analysis of small samples from the spade identified the wood as oak harvested from the center of the tree. This is a very hard, dense wood, making the spade a powerful tool.
The spade has been hewn from one solid piece of wood and would have required many hours of manual work to create, making it a precious tool to its prehistoric owner. It could easily have been reused and refashioned for other purposes if broken or damaged, making the incredible survival of this piece even more fascinating.
By the Middle Bronze Age, people across the country were settled into rural agricultural lifestyles that we might recognise today, with farmsteads, villages and extensive field systems. However, there is little evidence to suggest that there was a permanent domestic settlement where the spade was uncovered. Instead, archaeologists are exploring the idea that people were visiting this site seasonally.
During this period, the Arne Moors would have been prone to flooding in the winter months, and then drying out over summer. This would have provided the opportunity for past populations to make use of its rich natural resources. It could have been used as a place to cut and dry peat, as pasture for grazing animals or for hunting, fishing, gathering rushes for thatch and basket weaving and perhaps cultivating crops. The spade was found in a circular ditch that could have served several functions, including as a means of drying or protecting those useful resources.
The spade is currently undergoing conservation to ensure that it can be studied further without damaging the prehistoric wood. Meanwhile, Wessex Archaeology has scanned the spade and created a 3D model so it can be examined in close detail virtually.
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