Partial Solutions to Partially Understood Problems — The Experience of In Situ Monitoring and Preservation in Somerset’s Peatlands

Abstract

The peat moors of lowland Somerset contain a wealth of waterlogged archaeological sites, including some of the most significant prehistoric monuments in the country. There has been a long history of attempts to preserve archaeological sites in situ and monitoring of the burial environment began in 1982. The monitoring has become more complex over time, but the results suggest the same continuing problem of a drop in the water table over the summer months across the whole landscape. With the sole exception of the portion of the Neolithic Sweet Track that benefits from an irrigation system, all the other known sites remain at risk of gradual destruction. The solutions must be found on a landscape scale using agri-environment payments to secure sustainable management of the peat resource. Unfortunately, short-term changes to these payments and long-term changes to the climate are likely to worsen the situation and eventually to require a more drastic solution to the problem. Evidence has been generated to support an ecosystems approach to sustainable peatland management.

Keywords:

• peat
• Somerset
• wood
• preservation
• monitoring
• prehistoric
• waterlogged

The MARISP project and the 1999–2000 work on the Sweet Track was co-funded by English Heritage and Somerset County Council. Somerset County Council, the Environment Agency, and Natural England funded the various peat studies. The author would like to thank Gareth Watkins, the English Heritage project monitor, for his continued advice and support and all the numerous specialists who have been involved in the different projects.

Notes

1 See Williams in this volume.

2 See Jones in this volume.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Brunning

Richard Brunning has specialized on the excavation and analysis of prehistoric waterlogged wood in the UK and has compiled the English Heritage guidelines on waterlogged wood. For nineteen years he has been the Somerset Levels and Moors Archaeologist for Somerset County Council with responsibility for all aspects of the heritage of that area.

Correspondence to: Richard Brunning, Somerset Heritage Centre, Brunel Way, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton TA2 6SF, UK. Email: [email protected]