Shepherd, A. N., ed. (1995). Enlarging the Past. Thorverton: Wetland Archaeology Research Project.

This monograph is the publication of the 1995 Rhind lectures presented by both authors. They have selected a number of themes to examine, each of which will show how wetland archaeology has enlarged our knowledge about the past.

This chapter focuses on dating, particularly the contribution of dendrochronology. The Sweet Track in the Somerset Levels was broadly dated by artefactual evidence and radiocarbon dates to c 3200 bc. This was refined by dendrochronology which was able to identify a contemporaneous settlement far away in the Alpine foothills at Hauterive-Champreveyres. At the time of writing the earliest settlements dated to before 4000 BC were located in southern Germany and included Hornstaad-Hornle. It has been possible to provide absolute dates for the individual components of a settlement and a settlement pattern.

In this chapter it is suggested that where conditions are good and where archaeological work has been appropriate, wetland sites can provide information which in the main cannot be found anywhere else. The focus here is on food and the evidence from three sites is considered: lake Paladru and Chavarine-Colletiere, France and the Glastonbury Lake Village.

Despite the clear value of wetland sites it is argued that their promise has never been fully realised due to a combination of factors, among them the working out of peatbogs, the gradual decline of hand-cutting of peat, the erosive character of water in some Alpine lakes, the silting of other bodies of water, the construction of massive docks, railways and roadways along lake shores and in river valleys, the use of some wetlands for dumping, the denomination of others as wildlife reserves, and the development of other areas of archaeological research. It is acknowledged that extraction of the wealth of evidence is time-consuming and costly. The chapter concludes with a strategy for Scottish wetlands which have yet to be fully explored.