Hartlepool
Submerged Forest
An ancient landscape which can still be seen.
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Hartlepool Submerged Forest is a site of Special
Scientific Interest (SSSI), which lies on the
foreshore at Hartlepool, on the north-east coast
of England and stretches to the north and south
of Newburn Bridge for approximately 400 metres.
Map
Reference NZ 520 315.
The waters of Hartlepool Bay seem an unlikely
place for a forest today, but thousands of years
ago this whole area was covered with trees and
peat bog. In Mesolithic times, roughly 8000BC,
there was still a land bridge between Britain
and the rest of Europe and we know that much
of what is now the North Sea was low lying fenland.
One
of the more exciting finds from this site was
in 1971, with the discovery of the skeleton of
a Neolithic Man, which may have been deliberately
buried in the peat around 2700BC. The man was
between twenty-five and thirty-five years old
and had been placed on the surface of the peat
in a crouched position on his right side. A small
group of flint flakes had been placed near his
elbow and there was some evidence that the body
had been covered with branches and twigs of birch.
There have been three major programmes of investigation
of the forest in recent years; in 1990, 1995
and 2002 as part of sea defence works. Among
other finds, these have produced lines of wooden
stakes and worked flints. In 1984 over two metres
of wattle hurdling was uncovered on the beach
due to erosion of the peat and this was lifted
and conserved by Durham University. This has
been radiocarbon dated to 3600 BC and was probably
part of an arrangement for a fish trap.
The
waters of Hartlepool Bay seem an unlikely place
for a forest today, but thousands of years ago
this whole area was covered with trees and peat
bog. In Mesolithic times, roughly 8000 BC, there
was still a land bridge between Britain and the
rest of Europe, and we know that much of what
is now the North Sea was a low-lying fenland.
In 1931 a barbed bone spearhead lost by a Mesolithic
hunter was dredged up by a trawler 25 miles off
the Norfolk coast! The rising sea has inundated
these fens, and created the English Channel,
but in places the remains of the ancient forests
can still be seen. The peat beds exposed at low
tide in Hartlepool bay are among the largest
areas of this ancient landscape still to be seen.
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History from the peat
The waterlogged peat contains much information
about the ancient history of the area. Tree trunks,
branches and twigs can still be seen, and the
pollen grains preserved in the peat can tell
us a great deal about the climate and vegetation
of the past, and about the effects of early human
activity. In addition, the peat has preserved
the remains of long-vanished animals, and can
provide important information about the changes
in sea level in the distant past. For this reason
the area has been designated a Site of Special
Scientific Interest.
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The early environment of the Bay
The earliest peat in this region was
laid down about 7000 years ago. Roughly 1000 years
later the area was inundated by the sea for the
first time; a little over 5000 years ago more
peat began to form as a result of a brief fall
in sea level. On each occasion shallow freshwater
pools formed along the coast, and these bogs were
colonised by alder, elm, oak and hazel. Peat deposits
gradually developed in the pools, reaching great
depths in places.
The bogs and woodlands were used by the earliest
known inhabitants of this area, around 8000
BC. these Mesolithic people were hunters and
gatherers. They did not have fixed settlements,
but followed the game over wide areas, and
set up temporary camps. There have been frequent
finds of the bones and antlers of red deer,
which would have been hunted throughout the
human occupation of the area. Some of the antlers
have been worked for use as tools. later, as
cultivation and the herding of animals were
introduced, a more settled way of life gradually
came into existence.
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The first farmers
Evidence of human alteration of this wooded
and boggy area comes in the early Neolithic
period, about 3000 BC. The pollen record shows
the trees in decline, and an increase in the
numbers of grassland plants. At the same time,
charcoal appears in the deposits, showing that
the early farmers were using fire to manage
the land. the land had to be cleared of trees
before it could be used for agriculture, and
evidence of this activity has occasionally
been found. During building work in 1872, a
tree stump was found in the buried peat beds
at Newport, near Middlesbrough, which bore
the marks of having been cut with an axe; and
a fragment of a stone axe was found on the
beach in 1981.
A good deal can be learnt about the first
famers of the area from the evidence in the
peat. Fragments of their pottery have been
discovered, together with cores from which
flint tools were made, and a wooden lid with
a handle. Finds of cattle and pig bones show
us that animals were kept; another sign of
domestication is the presence of tooth-marks
on a piece of bone, showing that it had been
gnawed by Hartlepool's earliest known dog,
or possibly even a small wolf.
During an excavation carried out by Cleveland
County Archaeology Section on the upper part
of the beach near the Newburn Bridge in 1990,
a line of wooden stakes was found; this was
probably part of a fence or hurdle. this structure,
together with a cut piece of antler, a number
of worked flints, and a small pile of domestic
rubbish, suggests that a seetlement must be
close by.
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The skeleton
Perhaps the most exciting find was the skeleton
of a Neolithic man, discovered in 1971, which
may have been deliberately buried in the peat.
the man was between 25 and 35 years old, and
had been placed on the surface of the peat
in a crouched position on his right side. Near
his right elbow a small group of flint flakes
had been placed, and there was some evidence
that the body had been covered with branches
and twigs of birch.
There are a number of famous
cases in Scandinavia of deliberate burials
in bogs, and they are thought to have had some
ritual or ceremonial significance. Perhaps
the best-known example in this country is that
of 'Pete Marsh', or Lindow Man, found in a
Cheshire bog in 1984. This was a body of a
man in his thirties, who had been the victim
of a ritual killing before being buried in
the peat in about 550 BC. If the Hartlepool
skeleton is indeed the reamins of such a ritual
burial, it is one of only a very smalll number
known from the whole of the British Isles.
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