Flag Fen Southern Extension & Mustdyke Timber Causeway (Fengate, Peterborough)
Mustdyke Extension · Flag Fen South Causeway
Late Bronze Age (Ewart Park, 1300–900 BCE)·Fenland Late Bronze (Deverel–Rimbury, 1300–900 BCE)·🇬🇧 England, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough Fens, Fengate, Mustdyke channel south of Flag Fen, United Kingdom
About
About Flag Fen Southern Extension & Mustdyke Timber Causeway (Fengate, Peterborough)
Southern continuation of the 1-km Flag Fen Bronze Age timber causeway and platform (1300–900 BCE), traced 380 m south along the Mustdyke palaeochannel from the main platform at Fengate toward dry Whittlesey island. Peterborough Fenland Archaeology 2012–2017 (Stones) sampled a double post row with 300+ waterlogged posts (dendro 1220–1120 BCE) and a parallel wheel-rut plank way 1.8 m wide carrying Aubrey's 'fen road'. Where Flag Fen proper yielded 50,000 posts and votive deposits (swords, shackles), the extension shows domestic refinement: wattled causeway with clay capping and Bronze Age drove track to winter fen pasture. Lies 500 m upstream of Must Farm pile settlement.
Why it mattersProves Flag Fen was not isolated platform but 1.4-km fen causeway to dry island — fen territorial control.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Votive vs drove dual use
Theories
- 01Fen drove-way to winter pasture
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1220 – 1120 BCE (Late Bronze, Flag Fen phase 2)
- Period
- Late Bronze Age (Ewart Park, 1300–900 BCE)
- Culture
- Fenland Late Bronze (Deverel–Rimbury, 1300–900 BCE)
- Builders
- Fengate fen-edge Deverel–Rimbury communities
- Purpose
- Drove causeway and votive platform linking Flag Fen platform to Whittlesey dry island
- Abandoned
- c.900 BCE (fen drowning)
- Rediscovered
- 1982 F. Pryor Flag Fen; 2012 Mustdyke extension survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
-1220
Posts felled 1220–1120 BCE (dendro)
2017
Stones traces 380-m Mustdyke extension
On the ground
Structures & features
52.5740° N · 0.2950° W · 2 m · 2 mapped features
Gallery