Sweet Track
Archaeology >>
Discoveries >>Sweet Track
The Sweet
Track is an ancient roadway in the Somerset Levels,
England. As of the early 2000s, it is the oldest known
engineered roadway in the world. An grand footpath that ran
for almost 2km across the Somerset levels swamps. Ash, Oak
and Lime trees were systematically cut, pre-fabricated
and transported to the site, where they were built into a narrow
causeway supported on crossed poles, driven into grave poles
underwater and pegged together. Finally the
Oak walking platform was laid on top of the V shaped notch.
All this indicates a high extent.
|
 The track was revealed in the course of peat digging in 1970, and is named after its discoverer.
It complete across the marsh between what was then an island at Westhay, and a edge of high ground at Shapwick Burtle,
a distance close to 2,000 metres (over 1 mile). The track is one of a network of tracks that once crossed
the Levels.
Built in the 3800s BC during the Neolithic
period, the track consisted of crossed poles
of ash, oak and lime (Tilia) which were driven into the
saturated soil to support a walkway that mostly consists
of oak planks laid end-to-end. Due to the fenland setting,
the components must also have been prefabricated, and
were all cut using stone tools.
Most of the Track remains in its original location, and several hundred metres of its now actively
conserved using a pumped water distribution system. Portions are displayed at the British Museum,
London, while a reconstruction can be seen at "The Peat Moors Centre" [1], near Glastonbury.
|
