page_title: Flag Fen
section_title: Purpose
hierarchical_section_title: Flag Fen / Construction / Purpose
caption_attribution_description: English: The wet room at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire, Eastern England, in which the humidity and water levels are specially controlled to preserve the Bronze Age timbers.
context_page_description: Flag Fen, east of Peterborough, England, is a Bronze Age site developed about 3500 years ago, consisting of more than 60,000 timbers arranged in five very long rows, creating a wooden causeway across the wet fenland. Part-way across the structure a small island was formed. Items associated with it have led scholars to conclude that the island was a site of religious ceremonies and significance. Archaeological work began in 1982 at the site, which is located 800 m east of Fengate. Flag Fen is now part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership. A visitor centre has been constructed on site and some areas have been reconstructed, including a typical Iron Age roundhouse dwelling.
context_section_description: Many items denoting 'rank and prestige' were deposited in the water surrounding Flag Fen, including swords, spearheads, 'gold earrings, tiny pins and brooches'. Archaeologist Francis Pryor, who discovered the site in 1982, suggests that 'settlers often vied for social status by showing they could afford to discard valuable possessions'. There is also evidence of intentional destruction before placement, e.g. daggers broken in half placed on top of each other.
  Other finds included small, polished, white stones of a type not known in the area, indicating that they had been intentionally collected and transported to and placed at the site. Other artefacts found were animal bones, including horse mandibles. Horses were very valuable to the prehistoric people, since they provided a means of transport and could supplement or replace man-power. For example, they could be used to carry or pull timbers on sledges over long distances. Significance is also drawn from the discovery of the ritual deposits within thirty metres of the timber post line, and only on its southern boundary. The amount, type, and placement of deposits, which continued for more than 1,200 years, support the theory that 'at least one facet of the site' was a role as a 'religious monument'.
  On Northey Island many round barrows contemporary with Flag Fen were found. These seemed to be constructed over the dwellings of 'chiefs'. Mike Parker Pearson refers to this as the "Land of the Dead".  There is also evidence of farming, including sheep remains, contemporary with the site. Phosphate analysis reveals high concentrations of cremations in the barrows, in the form of satellite and secondary burials in the round barrows. This suggests that the primary burials may have been of chiefs, or socially powerful/respected people, and that some people may have paid to be buried close to the person they respected or followed.
caption: The wet room at Flag Fen; below are the exposed timbers of part of the Bronze Age causeway and above are the water sprinklers to keep them constantly wet.
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