Editing Sweet Track (section)

==Location==
In the early [[4th millennium BC|fourth millennium BC]], the track was built between an island at [[Westhay]] and a ridge of high ground at [[Shapwick, Somerset|Shapwick]] close to the [[River Brue]]. A group of mounds at Westhay mark the site of [[Prehistoric Britain|prehistoric]] lake dwellings, which were likely to have been similar to those found in the [[British Iron Age|Iron Age]] [[Glastonbury Lake Village]] near [[Godney]], itself built on a [[marsh|morass]] on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, [[bracken]], rubble, and [[clay]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cunliffe|first=Barry|title=Iron Age Communities in Britain (4th Ed)|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3lkEgdtOvGEC|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, Oxon|isbn=978-0-415-34779-2|page=266}}</ref>

The remains of similar tracks have been uncovered nearby, connecting settlements on the [[peat bog]]; they include the Honeygore, Abbotts Way, Bells, Bakers, Westhay, and Nidons trackways.<ref name="digitaldigging">{{cite web|title=Sweet Track&nbsp;– Somerset Levels|url=http://digitaldigging.co.uk/maps/trackways/prehistoric-sweet-track-somerset-levels.html|publisher=Digital Digging|access-date=8 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305145358/http://digitaldigging.co.uk/maps/trackways/prehistoric-sweet-track-somerset-levels.html|archive-date=5 March 2012}}</ref> Sites such as the nearby [[Meare Pool]] provide evidence that the purpose of these structures was to enable easier travel between the settlements. Investigation of the Meare Pool indicates that it was formed by the encroachment of [[raised bog|raised peat bogs]] around it, particularly during the [[Subatlantic]] climatic period (1st millennium BC), and [[core sample|core sampling]] demonstrates that it is filled with at least {{convert|2|m|ft}} of detritus mud.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rippon|first=Stephen|year=2004|title=Making the Most of a Bad Situation? Glastonbury Abbey, Meare, and the Medieval Exploitation of Wetland Resources in the Somerset Levels|journal=Medieval Archaeology|volume=48|page=119|doi=10.1179/007660904225022816|url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/20952/Glastonbury%20Abbey.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703002414/https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/20952/Glastonbury%20Abbey.pdf?sequence=1|archive-date=3 July 2015|hdl=10036/20952|s2cid=161985196|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Godwin|first1=H.|last2=Macfadyen|first2=W. A.|year=1955|title=Studies of the Post-Glacial History of British Vegetation. XIII. The Meare Pool Region of the Somerset Levels|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]]|volume=239|issue=662|pages=161–190|doi=10.1098/rstb.1955.0008|bibcode=1955RSPTB.239..161G|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The two [[Meare Lake Village]]s within Meare Pool appear to originate from a collection of structures erected on the surface of the dried peat, such as tents, windbreaks and animal folds. Clay was later spread over the peat, providing raised stands for occupation, industry and movement, and in some areas thicker clay spreads accommodated [[hearth]]s built of clay or stone.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Chapmana|first1=Henry P.|last2=Van de Noort|first2=Robert|year=2001|title=High-Resolution Wetland Prospection, using GPS and GIS: Landscape Studies at Sutton Common (South Yorkshire), and Meare Village East (Somerset)|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|volume=28|issue=4|pages=365–375|doi=10.1006/jasc.2000.0581|bibcode=2001JArSc..28..365C }}</ref>