As we already reported, evidence of a prehistoric causeway has been uncovered during flood defence work on the Norfolk-Suffolk border (England). Now we have some more details about this find.
     Archaeologists said the wooden causeway was used from the Bronze Age in about 1000 BCE, through the Iron Age to Roman times and the 4th century CE. Archaeologists from the University of Birmingham and Suffolk County Council Archaeological Field Services Team were called in to investigate the find. Results suggest the more than 2,624ft (800m) long wooden causeway may have run from dry land on the edge of Beccles, across a swamp to a spot on the River Waveney. A 98ft-long (30m) section of the causeway has been recorded with more than 40 in-situ timber posts uncovered. The 16ft-wide (5m) causeway would have carried carts and was the Bronze Age equivalent of a motorway. The wet conditions of the site mean that organic material such as wood has been well preserved.
     Dr Henry Chapman, from the University of Birmingham, said: "You have got a causeway which has been used for a tremendous amount of time, which is unique - we haven't got something like that. It has been added to over time to preserve it, which shows its importance to early Beccles."

Source: BBC News (3 August 2006)