This special piece of timber was unearthed on a building site in the village of Boxford in Berkshire, England. Decorated with mysterious carvings, this rare wooden artifact has been compared to Shigir Idol, the oldest piece of carved wood in the world.
Until now, the oldest piece of wood discovered in England, known as the “Sweet Track,” was an ancient walkway in the Somerset Levels that dated back to the Neolithic period , around 3807 BC, making it over 5,000 years old. Now, a large chunk of oak has been discovered in England, that was well-preserved in peat, and it has been dated to the European Mesolithic period, “more than 6,000-years-ago”.
This story begins four years ago when landowner, Derek Fawcett, was constructing a new outbuilding. When the builders were digging out a foundation trench for the outhouse, Fawcett spotted timber and contacted the county archaeologist, Sarah Orr. After inspection, Orr determined that the wooden item was located about 1.5 meters (4.92 ft) below the ground level, and that “it was clearly very old and appeared well preserved in peat.”
Fawcett and Orr hosed down the timber and noticed what appeared to be markings that Orr said looked “unnatural and possibly man-made.” Fawcett and Orr have since been working closely with a multidisciplinary team of archaeologists from Historic England , who teamed up with scientists from the Nottingham tree-ring dating laboratory , and the Centre for Isotope Research at the university of Groningen .
Hellbound and Down 