Flag Fen has produced a remarkably diverse collection of finds which range from ordinary domestic pottery, to four complete and largely unused corn-grinding stones (known as querns) and over 300 examples of Bronze and Iron Age metalwork. In addition the excavations also revealed turned shale bracelets and a surprisingly large collection of animal bones, mostly from joints of meat, but also from several Collie-sized dogs.
The largest number of finds came from excavations in 1989, ahead of the modern power station, on the Fengate (or eastern) landfall of the post alignment. Most of the metalwork from the power station was found using detectors, a technique which is largely unbiased. The distribution of metalwork as revealed by the detectors is therefore a true reflection of its original spread in antiquity. The vast majority of metal finds were among, and to the south side of, the posts. Most of the items recovered were damaged (probably deliberately) and many had been carefully dropped or placed, rather than thrown, into the water. This suggests that much of the metalwork, had been deliberately removed from daily life by being ritually destroyed. Its deposition within the waters of Flag Fen was a symbolic way of marking its passage to another realm – perhaps that of the ancestors or the afterlife.
The majority of metal items were in bronze, an alloy, usually composed of about 10 % tin and 90 % copper (brass, introduced to Britain in Roman times, also contains zinc). In all, the power station excavation revealed just under 300 metal objects, of which the large majority were pins, rings and ornaments. The greatest weight of metal, however, was in weapons: swords, dirks, daggers and a rapier. Tools were relatively rare, apart from a collection of almost 20 tanged chisels, punches and awls which were found in the same area and probably represent an individual craftsman’s tool kit.
Bronze swords were a characteristic find. The earliest swords date to the middle Bronze Age, around 1300BC, and have long thrusting blades. They were bent and broken and rivets were detached (presumably as the hilt was smashed), before being placed in the water. By the Late Bronze Age, around 1100BC, the style of swords had changed from thrusting rapiers to slashing weapons where the main weight of the leaf-shaped blade was towards the tip. These weapons had more in common with a cutlass or scimitar than a rapier. But they were broken, bent and damaged before being dropped in the water, and there is evidence, too, that their scabbards were also mistreated.
A selection of the bronze weaponry
Most of the metalwork can be dated to the Late Bronze Age and belong to a well-defined style, group or ‘industry’ named after the Fenland village of Wilburton, a few miles north of Cambridge. Wilburton itself is on an old ‘island’, but the wet fen around it has produced large quantities of Late Bronze Age metalwork, in a very distinctive style – and nearly all of it, I am quite convinced, was put there on purpose. Two complete Wilburton swords were found at the power station, together with fragments of others, and broken pieces of scabbard fittings. There was also a complete, but broken, Early Iron Age sword (fourth and fifth centuries BC) and fragments from several others.
The collection of smaller blade weapons was extraordinary, ranging from a complete Middle Bronze Age rapier, via a selection of Late Bronze Age dirks and daggers to what can only be described as a miniature Wilburton sword. Late Bronze Age spears were less plentifully represented, but one spearhead, although partially sharpened, was still unfinished, as the socket for its shaft was still filled with mould material; others still had pieces of wooden shaft in their sockets. The non-business end of many Bronze Age spear shafts were sometimes shod with a ferrule, rather like a walking stick. These are generally quite small, but one very unusual large, broken example was also found at the power station.
It has been suggested that many Late Bronze Age shields and weapons found in bogs, fens and rivers were not functional. Professor John Coles has convincingly shown that the shafts of large spearheads were often too small to be used, and the thin bronze of shields would simply buckle and rip if struck hard by a Bronze Age sword. The same must apply to sheet bronze helmets, too. Possible fragments from one, and maybe two helmets were found and (if confirmed) these would be the first examples from Britain. Again, they were smashed, and this makes it difficult to be certain about their identification. The late Dr. David Coombs was more convinced when he first saw them in the field, but seemed to change his mind in the metalwork chapter of the Flag Fen Basin Report. [8]
The most unusual find was a pair of sprung bronze shears in a carefully carved, fitted wooden box which had a little slot in the base for a sharpening stone. These shears are of Iron Age date and can be used for shearing or cutting many things, from human hair or wool to thin willow osiers. They were unique in bronze, until the recent (2004) discovery of a decorated example from Hamperden End, in Essex. The decoration places the Essex shears to the later Iron Age, around 20BC–AD70. It’s hard to be certain, but I would place the Flag Fen shears a century or two earlier, but still in the Iron Age.
The remarkable bronze shears
The power station excavations also revealed an array of broken Bronze Age pins, mostly of stick type and with disc heads, some of which were decorated. Various rings in bronze and tin could have been ornaments or harness fittings and are entirely characteristic of the Late Bronze Age Wilburton tradition of metalwork. Early Iron Age brooches, pins and ornaments were also bent, twisted or otherwise deliberately damaged. This would suggest that the rites surrounding their deposition in the water were the same as in Bronze Age times. They were also very high class objects, often with provision for inlaid decoration of tin, glass or coral – all of which, sadly, had been smashed out. It is perhaps worth noting that some of the Iron Age fine brooches are the type of item one would normally expect to find in a well-furnished, elite warrior grave.
Arguably the most remarkable ornament was again smashed. Being unique it is hard to date at this stage, other than to state that it is probably Bronze Age. It is a large bracelet or armlet (a bracelet worn on the upper arm) of shale, but deeply inlaid with lead, which has been applied in strips. The decoration in neat zigzag bands is very distinctly Bronze Age (by the Iron Age it would have been more curvy and swirling) and can best be paralleled by a remarkable inlaid shale bowl of probable Late Bronze Age date, from Caergwrle, now in the National Museum of Wales. It is an exceptionally fine object.
Another extraordinary aspect of the power station discoveries was the fact that a surprisingly high proportion of the metal finds are made from pure metallic tin. This has not been noted before in Britain, but is probably due to the site’s naturally waterlogged conditions (which impede corrosion) and the fact that most tin items are very small and are unlikely to be spotted with the naked eye. Other tiny finds included individual bronze rivets from swords and daggers. These again indicate a degree of deliberate smashing and their discovery amply justifies the use of metal-detectors.
A crucible fragment that had been used to melt pure tin, was found on the Iron Age Cat’s Water dry land settlement of Fengate, just south of the power station, in 1975. This could indicate that some of the power station finds were made locally, perhaps for the sole purpose of ‘sacrifice’ to the waters. This suggestion might seem ridiculous were it not for the fact that many of the metal objects, such as the bronze swords, were clearly rather second-rate castings. We have already referred to the spearhead with mould material still in its socket, but at least two of the swords had been broken across major casting flaws and one must ask whether they could ever have been used in actual battle. Similarly the miniature Wilburton sword is too tiny to be an efficient fighting weapon. Could it be that much of this material was actually manufactured on site with deposition and ceremonial breakage in mind?
Crucible, shale bracelet, dagger blade, pin, and antler harness cheek-piece, from the post alignment within the platform
It would be a mistake to give the impression that metalwork was the only material found at the power station sub-site. There were many animal bones, often of dogs, and numerous pot sherds, too. Whether these were deposited in the water along with the metalwork remains to be seen, however.
Death was a recurrent theme. We have already mentioned a body, found on the north-eastern side of the posts, and two thigh bones of a fairly tall person were also found on that side, but some way away from the articulated bones. At one point an area of posts had been used to dispose of loose human bones; over three individuals are represented and with the bones we found a broken shale bracelet and a complete boar’s tusk; these must surely be offerings of some sort and were probably associated with rites of passage to do with death.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Flag Fen is that metalwork continued to be deposited in and around the posts for several centuries after the last episode of rebuilding (around 900BC). This would suggest that even though we know that conditions in the Early Iron Age were growing wetter, the post alignment continues to be used as a causeway, presumably during the drier months of summer. Maybe, too, the site could have been visited by boat in the winter. Although most of the metalwork belongs to the Wilburton tradition of the Late Bronze Age, a significant amount of material, including such large items as swords, continued to be deposited in the subsequent Ewart Park (mid-tenth to eighth centuries BC) and Llyn Fawr (seventh century BC) phases of the Late Bronze Age. There are about twenty true Iron Age metal finds, including no less than two broken iron swords, the decorated bronze scabbard plate, an extraordinarily elaborate bronze plate brooch, numerous dress pins and the well-known shears in their wooden box. This is not a bad haul for a supposedly Bronze Age site!