Editing Sweet Track (section)

==Discovery and study==
[[File:Sweettrack.jpg|thumb|The Sweet Track was found in the [[Somerset Levels]]]]

The track was discovered in 1970 during [[peat]] excavations and is named after its finder, Ray Sweet.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Robin |last2=Williams |first2=Romey |title=The Somerset Levels|year=1992|pages=35–36|publisher=Ex Libris Press|location=Bradford on Avon|isbn=978-0-948578-38-0}}</ref> The company for which he worked, E. J. Godwin, sent part of a plank from the track to [[John Coles (historian)|John Coles]], an assistant lecturer in archaeology at [[Cambridge University]], who had carried out some excavations on nearby trackways.<ref name="brunning"/> Coles' interest in the trackways led to the Somerset Levels Project, which ran from 1973 to 1989, funded by various donors including [[English Heritage]]. The project undertook a range of local archaeological activities, and established the economic and geographic significance of various trackways from the third and first millennia BC.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coles|first=J.M.|title=Effect of Man on the Landscape: The Lowland Zone|year=1978|publisher=Council for British Archaeology|isbn=978-0-900312-60-1|chapter-format=PDF|pages=86–89|chapter-url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/cba_rr/rr21.cfm|editor=Susan Limbrey|location=York|chapter=Man and landscape in the Somerset Levels|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003082045/http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/cba_rr/rr21.cfm|archive-date=3 October 2016}}</ref> The work of John Coles, [[Bryony Coles]], and the Somerset Levels Project was recognised in 1996 when they won the [[Imperial Chemical Industries|Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)]] Award for the best archaeological project offering a major contribution to knowledge,<ref>{{cite web |title=British Archaeological Awards |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/awards/baa1998.html |publisher=Council for British Archaeology |access-date=17 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603093627/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/awards/baa1998.html |date=19 November 1998 |archive-date=3 June 2008}}</ref> and in 2006 with the European Archaeological Heritage Prize.<ref>{{cite web|title=European Archaeological Heritage Prize 2006|url=http://www.e-a-a.org/EAA/Awards/Heritage_Prize/2006/EAA/Navigation_Prizes_and_Awards/Heritage_Prize_2006.aspx?hkey=e9a184bb-ef4b-4247-807d-7ea9ea84b375|publisher=European Association of Archaeologists|format=PDF|access-date=17 June 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001201917/http://www.e-a-a.org/EAA/Awards/Heritage_Prize/2006/EAA/Navigation_Prizes_and_Awards/Heritage_Prize_2006.aspx?hkey=e9a184bb-ef4b-4247-807d-7ea9ea84b375|archive-date=1 October 2016}}</ref>

[[Dendrochronology]] (tree-ring dating) of the timbers has enabled precise dating of the track, showing it was built in 3807 BC.<ref name="new scientist"/><ref name="Saul">{{cite book |editor-last1=Saul |editor-first1=Nigel |title=The National Trust Historical Atlas of Britain: Prehistoric to Medieval |date=1994 |publisher=Sutton Publishing in association with the National Trust |location=UK |isbn=978-0750916790 |pages=17–18 |edition=2}}</ref> This dating led to claims that the Sweet Track was the oldest roadway in the world,<ref Name="Current_Archaeology_intro">{{cite journal|title=Highlights|volume=XV (4)|issue=172 (Special issue on Wetlands)|journal=Current Archaeology|date=February 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Lay|first1=M. G.|title=Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles that Used Them|year=1999|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-2691-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=flvS-nJga8QC&q=Sweet%20Track&pg=PR3|last2=Vance|first2=James E.|page=51}}</ref> until the discovery in 2009 of a 6,000-year-old trackway built in 4100 BC, in [[Plumstead]], near [[Belmarsh prison]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://phys.org/news/2009-08-london-earliest-timber-belmarsh-prison.html |title=London's earliest timber structure found during Belmarsh prison dig |date=12 August 2009 |work=physorg.com News |access-date=10 July 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715214221/http://www.physorg.com/news169297178.html |archive-date=15 July 2011}}</ref> Analysis of the Sweet Track's timbers has aided research into [[Neolithic|Neolithic Era]] dendrochronology; comparisons with wood from the [[River Trent]] and a submerged forest at [[Stolford]] enabled a fuller mapping of the rings, and their relationship with the climate of the period.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hillam |first1=J. |last2=Groves |first2=C. M. |last3=Brown |first3=D. M. |last4=Baillie |first4=M. G. L. |last5=Coles |first5=J. M. |last6=Coles |first6=B. J. |title=Dendrochronology of the English Neolithic |journal=Antiquity |year=1990 |volume=64 |issue=243 |pages=210–220 |url=http://www.bosci.net/papers/sweettrackdate.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723031911/http://www.bosci.net/papers/sweettrackdate.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2011 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00077826 |s2cid=163000519 }}</ref>

The wood used to build the track is now classed as [[bog-wood]], the name given to wood (of any source) that for long periods (sometimes hundreds of thousands of years) has been buried in peat bogs, and kept from [[decomposition|decaying]] by the [[acid]]ic and [[hypoxia (environmental)|anaerobic]] bog conditions. Bog-wood usually is stained brown by [[tannin]]s dissolved in the acidic water, and represents an early stage of [[fossil]]isation. The age of the track prompted large-scale excavations in 1973, funded by the [[Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs|Department of the Environment]].<ref name="brunning">{{cite book|last=Brunning|first=Richard|title=Somerset Archaeology: Papers to Mark 150 Years of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society|year=2000|publisher=South West Heritage Trust|chapter-url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/HES_150_Years_Chapter_11.pdf|editor=CJ Webster|chapter=11. Neolithic and bronze-age Somerset: a wetland perspective|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324051317/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/HES_150_Years_Chapter_11.pdf|archive-date=24 March 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Hache 222.1 Prespective.jpg|thumb|A polished jadeitite axe head from the Museum of Toulouse]]
In 1973, a [[jadeitite]] axehead was found alongside the track; it is thought to have been placed there as an offering.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hunter|first1=John|title=The Archaeology of Britain: An Introduction from Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century: An Introduction from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-13588-7|pages=63–64|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SkaqGT0wLk4C&q=Sweet+track+archeology&pg=PA65|last2=Rolston|first2=Ian}}</ref><ref name= "BM">{{cite book |last1=Garrow |first1=Duncan |last2=Wilkin |first2=Neil |title=The World of Stonehenge |date=2022 |publisher=British Museum Press |location=London |isbn=978-07141-2349-3 |page=22}}</ref> One of over 100&nbsp;similar axe heads found in Britain and Ireland, its good condition and its precious material suggest that it was a symbolic axe, rather than one used to cut wood.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/j/jadeite_axe-head.aspx|title=Jadeite axe-head|access-date=21 November 2009|publisher=[[British Museum]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221125015/http://britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/j/jadeite_axe-head.aspx|archive-date=21 February 2009}}</ref> Because of the difficulty of working this material, which was derived from the Alpine area of Europe, all the axe heads of this type found in Great Britain are thought to have been non-utilitarian and to have represented some form of currency or be the products of gift exchange.<ref>{{cite book|last=Barker|first=Graeme|title=Companion encyclopedia of archaeology|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=1999|page=378|isbn=978-0-415-21329-5|url=https://archive.org/details/companionencyclo0000unse_z3b0|url-access=limited}}</ref> [[Radiocarbon]] dating of the peat in which the axe head was discovered suggests that it was deposited in about 3200 BC.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=I.F.|title=Stone axe studies: archaeological, petrological, experimental and ethnographic|year=1978|publisher=Council for British Archaeology|isbn=978-0-900312-63-2|pages=13–22|chapter-url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/cba_rr/rr23.cfm|chapter-format=PDF|editor=T H McK Clough and W A Cummins|access-date=14 July 2010|chapter=The chronology of British stone implements|location=York|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321012925/http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/cba_rr/rr23.cfm|archive-date=21 March 2016}}</ref> Wooden artefacts found at the site include paddles, a dish, arrow shafts, parts of four hazel bows, a [[throwing axe]], yew pins, digging sticks, a [[mattock]], a comb, toggles, and a spoon fragment. Finds made from other materials, such as flint flakes, arrowheads, and a [[flint tool|chipped flint axe]] (in mint condition) have also been made.<ref>{{cite web|title=Neolithic finds, Shapwick Heath, Shapwick|url=http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/11000|work=Somerset Historic Environment Record|publisher=South West Heritage Trust|access-date=29 September 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003095137/http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/11000|archive-date=3 October 2016}}</ref>

A [[geophysical]] survey of the area in 2008 showed unclear [[magnetometer]] data; the wood may be influencing the peat's [[hydrology]], causing the loss or collection of minerals within the pore water and peat matrix.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Armstrong|first1=K.|title=Archaeological geophysical prospection in peatland environments: Locating the Sweet Track at Canada Farm, Shapwick Heath (Somerset)|url=http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/11145/1/armstrong_cheetham_abstract_v2_.pdf|work=EIGG 8th Meeting on Recent Work in Archaeological Geophysics, 16 Dec 2008, The Geological Society, Burlington House, London, UK.|publisher=Bournemouth University |access-date=8 June 2010|last2=Cheetham|first2=P|year=2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719185241/http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/11145/1/armstrong_cheetham_abstract_v2_.pdf|archive-date=19 July 2011}}</ref>