An “exceptionally rare” Iron Age wooden axle from a chariot or cart has been found in a waterlogged pit in Eastbridge, Suffolk. The fragment was uncovered ahead of tree planting for the Sizewell C nuclear power station project. A radiocarbon date on the hazel wood of the axle has shown that it was made between 400BC and 100BC.
The discovery was made by Cotswold Archaeology in 2021, and joins a handful of others from British later prehistory, such as the axle found at Flag Fen in Peterborough.
The team had found examples of prehistoric to medieval archaeology, including two Iron Age pits that were most likely used as watering holes for livestock. Both pits were waterlogged, providing ideal preservation conditions for wood, and it is in the base of one of these that the axle was found.
The wooden axle repurposed as a stake. ( Cotswold Archaeology )
Proof Recycling, Reusing, Repurposing is Nothing New
According to the BBC , the fragment has just been identified through analysis by dendrochronologist Michael Bamforth , a research associate at the University of York.
The axle was broken and burned in antiquity, and found together with charred boards that were possibly from the same vehicle. However, it had been repurposed within a stake shoring that had prevented the collapse of the waterhole in the site’s sandy soil.
This axle is an exceptionally rare find that joins only a handful of others from British later prehistory, such as the axle found at Flag Fen, Peterborough.
Research is…
