Glastonbury Lake Village

Infobox Megalith
Name = Glastonbury Lake Village
Photo = Glastonbury lake village.jpg|Site of Glastonbury Lake Village in 2006
Type = Iron age village
Country = England
County = Somerset
Nearest Town = Glastonbury
Nearest Village = Meare
Grid_ref_UK = ST493407
Grid_ref_Ireland =
Coor = coord|51|09|49|N|02|43|33|W|type:landmark|display=inline,title
Condition = 2
Access = 3
References = Megalithic Portal|4954

Glastonbury Lake Village was an iron age village on the Somerset Levels near Godney, some convert|3|mi|km|0|lk=on north west of Glastonbury. It covers an area of convert|400|ft|m|0|lk=on north to south by convert|300|ft|m|0 east to west.cite web |url=http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=23637 |title=Glastonbury Lake Village |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format= |work=Somerset Historic Environment Record ]

The village was built in about 300BC and occupied into the early Roman period (around 100AD) when it was abandoned, possibly due to a rise in the water level. [cite book |last=Adkins |first=Lesley |authorlink= |coauthors=Roy Adkins |title=A field guide to Somerset archeology |year=1992 |publisher=Dovecote Press |location=Wimborne |isbn=0946159947 ] It was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay. [cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Iron Age Communities in Britain (4th Ed) |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge |location= |isbn=0415347793 ]

The village housed around 100 people in five to seven groups of houses, each for an extended family, with sheds and barns, made of hazel and willow covered with reeds, and surrounded either permanently or at certain times by a wooden palisade.

The village was close to the old course of the River Brue.

Excavation

The lake village, a 'crannog' or man made island, was discovered in 1892 by Arthur Bulleid a local medical student, and son of a local mayor and the founder of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. [cite web |url=http://glastonburyantiquarians.org/site/index.php?page_id=54 |title=Lake village |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format= |work=Glastonbury Antiquarians ] The excavation of the area was started in 1897. It found timber remains of the village.cite web |url=http://www.isleofavalon.co.uk/sacredsites/godney.html |title=Godney and Glastonbury Lake Village |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format= |work=Sacred Sites around Glastonbury ] Much of the timber was reburied as the best way of preserving it, and a survey in 2005 found this to have been quite successful, [cite web |url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1587420,00.html#article_continue |title=Britain's ancient sites destroyed by agriculture |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format= |work=The Guardian ] despite reports warning of the area drying out and the peat coverage being reduced. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Glastonbury lake village and prehistoric tracks drying out |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba63/news.shtml#item1 |work=British Archeology magazine |publisher= |date=Feb 2002 |accessdate=2007-11-18 ]

Artifacts

The artifacts recovered include fragments of pottery, charcoal, bone and a whetstone (a stone for sharpening blades). Later, on excavation, spinning whorls and weaving combs were found, suggesting textile production. Evidence of bronze-casting and iron-smelting were found. Fine jewellery made from bronze bone have also been found showing a high degree of craftsmanship. [cite book |last=Hawkins |first=Desmond |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Avalon and Sedgemoor |year=1982 |publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing |location=Gloucester |isbn=0862990165 ]

Files and hammer heads were examined by metallography which showed that carbon compositions were found to be generally low. [cite journal |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1995 |month= |title=Metallographic examination of Iron Age tools from Somerset |journal=Historical metallurgy (Hist. metall.) ISSN 0142-3304 |volume=29|issue=1 |pages=1–11 |id= |url=http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2878108 |accessdate= 2007-11-18 |quote= ]

Bronze bowl

A key find was a sheet bronze bowl which was examined in 2007 and suggested that the bowl has been made from the remnants of two separate vessels, before it was deposited in the peat. Further investigation by electron microprobe analysis and optical microscopy has been proposed. [cite web |url=http://glastonburyantiquarians.org/site/index.php?page_id=124 |title=Lake Village Bowl Research |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format= |work=Glastonbury Antiquarian Society ]

Wooden objects

The site yielded a number of wooden object preserved in the peaty soil including five wheel spokes and an unfinished nave. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/archaeology/wetwang/wetwang_chariot_fact_file.shtml |title=Glastonbury Lake Village |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format= |work=BBC History Trails ]

Woven baskets recovered from the site provided evidence of woven baskets up to 700 mm in width and 480 mm in height. [cite web |url=http://www.sair.org.uk/sair19/sair19-6-discussion.pdf |title=Discussion by Paul R J Duffy, with Jennifer Miller& Susan Ramsay |accessdate=2007-11-18 |format=PDF |work=SAIR - Excavation of a Bronze Age wicker container, Gearraidh na h’Aibhne, Isle of Lewis ]

Exhibition

The site and the finds from it are the property of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society.

Many of the finds from the site are on display in the Glastonbury Lake Village Museum at The Tribune in Glastonbury High Street, and in the Somerset County Museum in Taunton.

Representations of the houses have been recreated at the nearby Peat Moors Centre.

References

External links

* [http://www.gallica.co.uk/meare/ Online copy of book by Bulleid & Gray]
* [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=229&imageUID=75946&main_query=&theme=ANCIENT%20SITE&period=&county=&district=&place_name= photo of the excavation from English Heritage]