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Open Country: Seahenge

Seahenge

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, Seahenge

Rose Ferraby finds out about Seahenge - a timber monument found on a beach in Norfolk.

Seahenge is an extraordinary Bronze Age timber monument which was found on a beach in North Norfolk. Archaeologist Rose Ferraby traces the story of its discovery.

Seahenge is an extraordinary early Bronze Age timber monument which was found on a beach in North Norfolk. Formed of a giant up-turned tree trunk surrounded by wooden posts, it's believed to have been a place where the dead were laid out. It was originally built on land on the edge of saltmarsh, but shifting sea levels meant that it became swamped by the marsh and was then preserved in a layer of peat. Four thousand years later, with further changes to the coastline around The Wash, it emerged once more - as the waves eroded the peat away, revealing the ancient timbers beneath.

In this programme, Rose Ferraby traces the story of the monument. She meets the man who originally alerted archaeologists to its presence in the sand at Holme-next-the-Sea, and talks to some of the team who worked on the project to excavate it almost a quarter of a century ago. She goes to see the preserved timbers in the museum at King's Lynn, and reflects on what Seahenge reveals about people's relationships with their landscape in prehistory, and how they have adapted to life on this ever-changing coast.

Produced by Emma Campbell

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