Proc Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist Soc 111

The finding of a tree-trunk boat in 1906 and the subsequent determination of its 14C date (345 BC + 120) made it desirable to obtain a stratigraphical sequence from the neighbourhood of the find. When opportunity arose for this in 1964 the normal Shapwick Heath stratigraphy was observed; a lower layer of highly humified Sphagnum-Calluna peat of LBA date was overlain by a thick layer of Cladium peat, showing that open water had formerly existed on this spot. However, the section also suggested that a small wooded islet in the Cladium swamp had been artificially consolidated and built up with brushwood and timber. The boat, found with bow higher than stern, could thus have sunk while moored to the islet. Small clay ?sling-pellets were found scattered in the area. Elk droppings were in the peat formed in EIA between the two periods of flooding of this region.