British Archaeology, Issue 57, February 2001
"No audience and no political will" for public display of Bronze Age monument
The 4,050-year-old posts and upturned oak tree of Seahenge timber circle, excavated a year ago from a Norfolk beach amid widespread public disquiet, are almost certain to be reburied because no museum has agreed to take long-term care of them and put them on public display
The circle, which reappeared in 1998 at Holme-next-the-Sea as a result of coastal erosion, was hailed as one of the most evocative archaeological finds of the century. Its 'rescue' excavation in late 1999 by Norfolk Archaeological Unit, funded by English Heritage, was justified on the grounds that the circle was in danger of destruction within a few years by the sea, snails and rot.
Archaeologists argued that the information contained within the timbers should be deciphered before it was lost forever. Others insisted the circle was 'sacred' and should be left to decay in peace. The remains were taken to Flag Fen near Peterborough to be cleaned and studied. English Heritage, now sensitive to local public feeling, guaranteed they would eventually be returned to Norfolk. It also undertook to pay for conservation, estimated at £40,000, on condition that the circle's long-term future in a museum could be secured. Yet no museum has stepped forward, and the conservation money has not been spent.
Last month, Norfolk's Museum Service, Holme Parish Council and the Holme Timber Circle Forum (an umbrella group of archaeologists and local representatives) made it clear they wished the timbers to be reburied close to their original location. English Heritage is now studying how reburial will affect the timbers' long-term survival, but is likely to acquiesce.
David Miles, Chief Archaeologist at English Heritage, said that if no local museum wanted the timbers there was probably no other option but reburial. He emphasised this was a normal dilemma in archaeology. "My life [as an excavator] has been full of grouses about local museums not taking my material. The only difference here is that this case is taking place in the glare of publicity."
Maisie Taylor at Flag Fen said she regretted that no museum had taken responsibility for the timbers, but that reburial was preferable to allowing the timbers to decay. "Without conservation, they will deteriorate very rapidly, particularly as we move into warmer weather in the summer."
Vanessa Trevelyan, head of Norfolk Museum Service, said that to display the circle in its entirety a new museum would have to be built, for which there were neither funds nor an audience in Norfolk. "The display would require public subsidy for the rest of its life and there is no political will for that."
Study of the timbers has revealed not only a felling date (2049 and 2050 BC) but also the wide range of woodworking tools - 30 - available at the very beginning of the use of bronze tools in Britain.
A second timber circle and a second, separate tree stump appeared last month on the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, where Seahenge came to light in 1998. The new circle is bigger than Seahenge and has been interpreted as the remains of a Bronze Age burial mound. Archaeologists, nervous perhaps of reigniting public fury over their treatment of 'sacred' sites, have decided this time not to dig the monument from the beach.