Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent, The Guardian. Thursday January 11, 2001
Another timber structure has been discovered on the beach off Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, near the site of Seahenge, the 4,000-year-old timber circle revealed by a storm two years ago.
The discovery suggests the entire beach is an important prehistoric ritual landscape, with dozens more timber monuments waiting to be exposed and destroyed by storms, archaeologist Francis Pryor said last night.
Dr Pryor is an authority on wetland archaeology, who worked on the conservation of the Seahenge timbers after they were removed from the beach by English Heritage against bitter local opposition.
The new find, two logs surrounded by traces of wickerwork and post holes, was exposed in the sand last year but, in the wake of controversy over Seahenge, it was not publicised.
The Norfolk Archaeology Unit, which is completing a survey for English Heritage, has also found traces of other ancient timbers, including posts which may have supported trackways across what was, 4,000 years ago, a freshwater swamp.
English Heritage said reports on all the timbers were being studied, and no decision had been taken yet on what to do with the site, 200 metres from Seahenge.
Dr Pryor predicted the entire site would prove to be studded with monuments to the Bronze Age dead.
"It is now absolutely imperative that English Heritage and English Nature agree a management plan for the entire area, involving the local council, local people and the local archaeology unit, and permanent archaeological monitoring of the beach," he said.
Dr Pryor believes the new find is the remains of a barrow. "To me the two logs are very suggestive of supports for an oak coffin, which has already been lost."
He said it was probable there were perhaps hundreds of other structures.
Dr Pryor led the excavation over 30 years of a similar site, Flag Fen at Peterborough, where Bronze Age swords, bowls, jewellery and the oldest wooden wheel in Europe were uncovered. He believes there are similar deposits waiting to be found in the sand and silt at Holme.