For centuries it lay undisturbed in the sands
of the west Norfolk coast. But time and tides have
finally unveiled this 4,000-year-old secret.
The magic circle of pre-historic timbers ranks alongside
Stonehenge in international importance - yet no-one
knows exactly what it represents.
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Seahenge
Q&A
 Who
built it?
With the help of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit,
we try to see through the mists of prehistory.
Digging
into the past
What was life like
for the Bronze Age people who are presumed to
have built Seahenge?
Last
stop for pilgrims?
Seahenge is linked with
Stonehenge and Avebury by ancient roads - and
could have been the final stop on a pilgrimage.
Revealing
ancient secrets
How the most moden technology
is revealing the secrets of Seahenge's ancient
timbers.
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Within its oval ring of 54 posts is an inverted oak
tree with its roots spreading out 'like a table with
fingers' which experts believe may be some form of altar.
The marks where the trees had been felled are still
visible and have not been eroded by the sea. And there
is a good tree ring-dating sequence that does not match
any other sequence in Britain. The evidence suggests
the trees used were felled during the same summer.
Mark Brennand, of Norfolk County Council's archaeology
unit, said the structure was believed to have been used
for excarnation - the practice of exposing dead bodies
so that flesh rotted away more quickly. This would speed
the spirit on its way to the afterlife.
'I find it eerie and profoundly moving. All the hard-bitten
archaeologists who saw it out there felt the same. You're
directly in the presence of the past at a very personal
level,' he said.
Yet its exposure by the shifting sands sparked a race
against time to lift the structure and preserve it -
and provoked controversy between archaeologists and
the local community who wanted to see the ancient structure
left undisturbed.
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