Editing Sweet Track

{{short description|Ancient causeway in the Somerset Levels, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox historic site
| name = Sweet Track
| native_name = 
| native_language = 
| image = Sweet track.jpg
| alt = Vague straight track through boggy brush-covered ground
| caption = Part of the Sweet Track oak causeway, [[British Museum]]
| locmapin = Somerset
| coordinates = {{coord|51|09|51|N|2|49|35|W|display=inline,title}}
| location = [[Shapwick Heath]], [[Somerset Levels]], England
| area = 
| built = 3807 or 3806 BC
| architect = 
| architecture = 
| governing_body = 
| designation1 = Scheduled Ancient Monument
| designation1_offname = 
| designation1_date = 13 June 1996<ref name="sshersweettrack"/>
| designation1_number = 27978 (was Somerset 399)
| designation2 = Scheduled Ancient Monument
| designation2_offname = 
| designation2_date = 22 April 1996<ref name="sshersweettrack"/>
| designation2_number = 27979 (was Somerset 400)
}}

The '''Sweet Track''' is an [[ancient trackway]], or [[causeway]], in the [[Somerset Levels]], England, named after its finder, Ray Sweet. It was built in 3807&nbsp;BC (determined using [[dendrochronology]] – tree-ring dating) and is the second-oldest [[timber trackway]] discovered in the British Isles, dating to the [[Neolithic British Isles|Neolithic]]. The Sweet Track was predominantly built along the course of an earlier structure, the [[Post Track]].

The track extended across the now largely drained [[marsh]] between what was then an island at [[Westhay]] and a ridge of high ground at [[Shapwick, Somerset|Shapwick]], a distance close to {{convert|1800|m|ft}} or around {{convert|1800|m|mi|1|disp=out}}.<ref name="new scientist">{{Cite web|title=Science: The day the Sweet Track was built |date=16 June 1990 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12617212-800-science-the-day-the-sweet-track-was-built/ |issue=1721 |access-date=2021-10-13 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311232408/http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12617212.800-science-the-day-the-sweet-track-was-built.html|archive-date=11 March 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> The track is one of a network that once crossed the [[Somerset Levels]]. Various artifacts and prehistoric finds, including a [[jadeitite]] ceremonial axe head, have been found in the peat bogs along its length.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coles |first1=John |author-link1=John Coles (historian) |last2=Orme |first2=Bryony |author-link2=Bryony Coles |last3=Bishop |first3=A. C. |last4=Woolley |first4=A. R. |name-list-style=amp |date=September 1974 |title=A jade axe from the Somerset Levels |journal=Antiquity |volume=48 |issue=191 |pages=216–220 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00057987 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Construction was of crossed wooden poles, driven into the waterlogged soil to support a walkway that consisted mainly of planks of [[oak]], laid end-to-end. The track was used for a period of only around ten years and was then abandoned, probably due to rising water levels. Following its discovery in 1970, most of the track has been left in its original location, with active [[Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage|conservation]] measures taken, including a water pumping and distribution system to maintain the wood in its damp condition. Some of the track is stored at the [[British Museum]] and at the [[Museum of Somerset]] in Taunton. A reconstruction has been made on which visitors can walk, on the same line as the original, in [[Shapwick Heath|Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve]].

==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>

==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>

==Builders==
{{see also|Prehistoric Britain}}
The community that constructed the trackway were Neolithic farmers who had colonised the area around 3900 BC, and the evidence suggests that they were, by the time of construction, well organised and settled.<ref name="Costen">{{cite book|author=Costen, M. D.|title=The origins of Somerset|publisher=Manchester University Press|location=Manchester|year=1992|pages=4, 5|isbn=978-0-7190-3675-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yX-7AAAAIAAJ&q=somerset%20levels%20neolithic&pg=PA7}}</ref> Before this human incursion, the uplands surrounding the levels were heavily wooded, but local inhabitants began to clear these forests about this time to make way for an economy that was predominately pastoral with small amounts of cultivation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Scarry, C. Margaret|title=Foraging and farming in the eastern woodlands|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville|year=1993|pages=118, 119|isbn=978-0-8130-1235-3}}</ref> During the winter, the flooded areas of the levels would have provided this fishing, hunting, foraging and farming community with abundant fish and wildfowl; in the summer, the drier areas provided rich, open grassland for grazing cattle and sheep, reeds, wood, and timber for construction, and abundant wild animals, birds, fruit, and seeds.<ref>{{cite book|author=Aston, Michael|title=Interpreting the landscape: landscape archaeology and local history|url=https://archive.org/details/interpretingland00asto|url-access=limited|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=1997|page=[https://archive.org/details/interpretingland00asto/page/n26 26]|isbn=978-0-415-15140-5}}</ref> The need to reach the islands in the bog was sufficiently pressing for them to mount the enormous communal activity required for the task of stockpiling the timber and building the trackway, presumably when the waters were at their lowest after a dry period.<ref name="Costen"/> The work required for the construction of the track demonstrates that they had advanced woodworking skills and suggests some differentiation of occupation among the workers.<ref name="Costen"/> They also appear to have been managing the surrounding woodland for at least 120 years.<ref name="Costen"/>

==Construction==
[[File:Sweet track cross section2.jpg|thumb|right|Diagram showing a cross section of the Sweet Track]]
[[File:Sweet Track replica.jpg|alt=Two wooden posts set in the ground and crossing at an angle supporting a wooden board which disappears into tall green reeds|thumb|A replica of the Sweet Track]]
[[File:Reconstruction of the Sweet Track..jpg|thumb|Digital reconstruction of the Sweet Track, southern end]]
Built in 3807 or 3806 BC,<ref Name="Current_Archaeology_somerset-levels">{{cite journal|last=Brunning|first=Richard|title=The Somerset Levels|pages=139–143|volume=XV (4)|issue=172 (Special issue on Wetlands)|journal=Current Archaeology|date=February 2001}}</ref><ref name= "BM"/> the track was a walkway consisting mainly of planks of [[oak]] laid end-to-end, supported by crossed pegs of [[ash tree|ash]], oak, and [[Tilia|lime]], driven into the underlying peat.<ref name="bm"/> The planks, which were up to {{convert|40|cm|in}} wide, {{convert|3|m|in}} long and less than {{convert|5|cm|in}} thick, were cut from trees up to 400&nbsp;years old and {{convert|1|m|in}} in diameter, felled and split using only stone axes, wooden wedges, and mallets.<ref name="Coles Bryony">{{cite journal|last=Coles|first=Bryony|date=15 October 1987|title=Archaeology follows a wet track|journal=New Scientist|issue=1582|page=46|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CYz2qg55tPYC&q=Sweet%20Track&pg=PA46}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The length, straightness, and lack of forks or branches in the pegs suggest that they were taken from [[coppicing|coppiced]] woodland.<ref>{{harvnb|Coles|Coles|1986|page=50}}</ref> Longitudinal log rails up to {{convert|6.1|m|ft}} long and {{convert|7.6|cm|in}} in diameter, made of mostly [[hazel]] and [[alder]], were laid down and held in place with the pegs, which were driven at an angle across the rails and into the peat base of the bog.<ref name="bm"/><ref name="otter">{{cite book|last=Otter|first=R. A.|title=Civil Engineering Heritage: Southern England|publisher=Thomas Telford ltd|location=London|year=1994|page=101|isbn=978-0-7277-1971-3}}</ref> Notches were then cut into the planks to fit the pegs, and the planks were laid along the X shapes to form the walkway.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Fleming, Neil|author2=Grant, Jim|author3=Gorin, Sam|title=The archaeology coursebook: an introduction to themes, sites, methods and skills|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=2008|page=277|isbn=978-0-415-46286-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BgRG99HriOUC&q=sweet%20track&pg=PA277}}</ref> In some places a second rail was placed on top of the first one to bring the plank above it level with the rest of the walkway.<ref>{{harvnb|Coles|Coles|1986|p=112}}</ref> Some of the planks were then stabilised with slender, vertical wooden pegs driven through holes cut near the end of the planks and into the peat, and sometimes the clay, beneath.<ref>{{harvnb|Coles|Coles|1980|p=25}}</ref> At the southern end of the construction smaller trees were used, and the planks split across the grain to utilise the full diameter of the trunk.<ref name="Coles Bryony"/> Fragments of other tree species including [[holly]], [[willow]], [[Populus|poplar]], [[dogwood]], [[ivy]], [[birch]], and [[apple]] have also been found.<ref name="sshersweettrack">{{cite web|title=Sweet Track, Shapwick Heath|url=http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/10739|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/20161003094636/http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/10739|archive-date=3 October 2016}}</ref>

The [[wetland]] setting indicates that the track components must have arrived [[prefabrication|prefabricated]], before being assembled on site,<ref name="bm"/> although the presence of wood chips and chopped branches indicates that some trimming was performed locally.<ref name="sshersweettrack"/> The track was constructed from about {{convert|200,000|kg|lbs}} of timber, but Coles estimates that once the materials were transported to the site, ten men could have assembled it in one day.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Daniel|first=Glyn|date=9 October 1986|title=World's oldest road|journal=New Scientist|volume=261|issue=2529|pages=100–106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_35Z2EMyzAkC&q=Sweet%20Track%20to%20Glastonbury%3A%20Somerset%20Levels%20in%20Prehistory%20%28New%20Aspects%20of%20Antiquity&pg=PA60|bibcode=1989SciAm.261e.100C|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1189-100|url-access=subscription}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The Sweet Track was used only for about ten years;<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rahtz|first1=Phillip|last2=Watts|first2= Lorna|title=Glastonbury Myth and Archaeology|year=2003|publisher=Tempus|location=Stroud|isbn=978-0-7524-2548-1|page=25}}</ref> rising water levels may have engulfed it, and therefore curtailed its use.<ref>{{cite web|title=Wood Culture: Programme7-08|url=http://www.ccanw.co.uk/assets/files/Wood_Wisdom_Panels.pdf|publisher=Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World|access-date=8 June 2010|page=2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110409184902/http://www.ccanw.co.uk/assets/files/Wood_Wisdom_Panels.pdf|archive-date=9 April 2011}}</ref> The variety of objects found alongside the track suggest that it was in daily use as part of the farming life of the community.<ref name="Costen"/> Since its discovery, it has been determined that parts of the Sweet Track were built along the route of an even earlier track, the [[Post Track]], which was constructed thirty years earlier in 3838 BC.<ref name="hill-cotttingham">{{cite book|last1=Hill-Cottingham|first1=Pat|last2=Briggs|first2=D.|last3=Brunning|first3=R.|last4=King|first4=A.|last5=Rix|first5=G|title=The Somerset Wetlands|year=2006|publisher=Somerset Books|isbn=978-0-86183-432-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Post Track, Shapwick Heath|url=http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/10740|work=Somerset Historic Environment Record|publisher=South West JHeritage Trust|access-date=29 September 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003093027/http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/10740|archive-date=3 October 2016}}</ref>

==Conservation==
Most of the track remains in its original location, which is now within the [[Shapwick Heath]] [[biological Site of Special Scientific Interest]] and [[National Nature Reserve]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/nnr/1006131.aspx|title=Shapwick Heath NNR|publisher=Natural England|access-date=31 January 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100120055332/http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/nnr/1006131.aspx|archive-date=20 January 2010}}</ref> Following purchase of land by the [[National Heritage Memorial Fund]], and installation of a water pumping and distribution system along a {{convert|500|m|ft|adj=on}} section, several hundred metres of the track's length are now being actively conserved.<ref>{{cite journal|title=4.20.4 The Sweet Track, the Brue Valley, Somerset: assessment of in situ preservation|journal=Archeology Review|year=1996–1997|url=http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/ArchRev/rev96_7/strack.htm|access-date=7 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529201047/http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/ArchRev/rev96_7/strack.htm|archive-date=29 May 2010}}</ref> This method of preserving wetland archaeological remains (maintaining a high water table and saturating the site) is rare.<ref>{{cite book|title=Enduring Records. The Environmental and Cultural Heritage of Wetlands|publisher=Oxbow Books|pages=277–286|last1=Van de Noort|first1=Robert|last2=Chapman|first2=Henry|last3=Cheetham|first3=James|editor=B. Purdy|location=Oxford|chapter=Science-based conservation and management in wetland archaeology: the example of Sutton Common, UK|isbn=978-1-84217-048-9|year=2001}}</ref> A {{convert|500|m|ft|adj=on}} section, which lies within the land owned by the [[Nature Conservancy Council]], has been surrounded by a clay bank to prevent drainage into surrounding lower peat fields, and water levels are regularly monitored.<ref>{{cite book|last=Purdy|first=Barbara A.|title=Wet site archaeology|year=1990|publisher=CRC Press|place=Boca Raton, FL|isbn=978-0-936923-08-6|page=99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqFiYB2KI0YC&q=Sweet+track+archeology&pg=PA99}}</ref> The viability of this method is demonstrated by comparing it with the nearby Abbot's Way, which has not had similar treatment, and which in 1996 was found to have become dewatered and desiccated.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cox|first1=Margaret|last2=Earwood|first2=Caroline|last3=Jones|first3=E.B. Gareth|last4=Jones|first4=Julie|last5=Straker|first5=Vanessa|last6=Robinson|first6=Mark|last7=Tibbett|first7=Mark|last8=West|first8=Steven|title=An Assessment of the Impact of Trees upon Archaeology Within a Relict Wetland|date=October 2001|volume=28|issue=10|pages=1069–1084|doi=10.1006/jasc.2000.0642|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|bibcode=2001JArSc..28.1069C }}</ref> Evaluation and maintenance of water levels in the Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve involves the Nature Conservancy Council, the [[Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs]], and the Somerset Levels Project.<ref name="sshersweettrack"/>

Although the wood recovered from the Levels was visually intact, it was extremely degraded and very soft. Where possible, pieces of wood in good condition, or the worked ends of pegs, were taken away and conserved for later analysis.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coles|Coles|1986|p=107}}</ref> The conservation process involved keeping the wood in heated tanks in a solution of [[polyethylene glycol]] and, by a process of evaporation, gradually replacing the water in the wood with the wax over a period of about nine months. After this treatment the wood was removed from the tank and wiped clean. As the wax cooled and hardened, the artefact became firm and could be handled freely.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coles|Coles|1986|p=108}}</ref>

A section of the track on land owned by [[Fisons]] (who extracted peat from the area) was donated to the [[British Museum]] in London.<ref name="bm">{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/s/section_of_the_sweet_track.aspx|title=1986,1201.1–27 Sweet Track exhibition highlight|publisher=[[British Museum]]|access-date=19 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429101940/https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/s/section_of_the_sweet_track.aspx|archive-date=29 April 2011}}</ref> Although this short section can be assembled for display purposes, it is currently kept in store, off site, and under controlled conditions. A reconstructed section was displayed at the [[Peat Moors Centre]] near [[Glastonbury]]. The centre was run by the Somerset Historic Environment Service, but was closed in October 2009 as a result of budget cuts imposed by [[Somerset County Council]]. The main exhibits are extant, but future public access is uncertain. Other samples of the track are held in the [[Museum of Somerset]].<ref name="digitaldigging"/>

Sections of the track have been designated as a [[scheduled monument]],<ref name="sshersweettrack"/> meaning that it is a "nationally important" historic structure and [[archaeological site]] protected against unauthorised change.<ref name="schedule">{{cite web|title=Scheduled monuments policy statement|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scheduled-monuments-policy-statement|publisher=Gov.uk|access-date=21 November 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122112341/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scheduled-monuments-policy-statement|archive-date=22 November 2015}}</ref> These sections are also included in [[Historic England]]'s [[Heritage at Risk Register]].<ref>{{cite web|title=South West England|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/HAR_Register_South_West_2009/southwest-2009-har-register.pdf|work=Heritage at Risk|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=30 June 2010|page=183|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609181327/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/HAR_Register_South_West_2009/southwest-2009-har-register.pdf|archive-date=9 June 2011}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last1=Coles |first1=John |last2=Coles |first2=Bryony |title=Sweet Track to Glastonbury: The Somerset Levels in Prehistory |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-500-39022-1 }}
*{{cite book |last1=Coles |first1=Bryony |last2=Coles |first2=John |title=Prehistory of the Somerset Levels |publisher=Somerset Levels Project |location=Cambridge |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-9507122-0-8 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Coles |first1=John |title=The Worlds's Oldest Road |journal=Scientific American |date=November 1989 |volume=261 |issue=5 |pages=100–106 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1189-100 |bibcode=1989SciAm.261e.100C |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/1989/11-01/ |access-date=16 November 2021 |archive-date=8 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308015757/https://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/1989/11-01/ |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Sweet Track, Somerset}}
* {{Megalithic Portal|504}}
* A [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1dWX2BVJ6Q&list=PLJGgq9_om1eJ2LinZZE2MEgqfFMAEOzgm 3D film of the track] and its landscape has recently been made and is also available with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGk7FCo3h9E subtitles].
{{Featured article}}

{{Prehistoric technology| state=expanded}}

[[Category:Ancient trackways in England]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Somerset]]
[[Category:Footpaths in Somerset]]
[[Category:Archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Stone Age sites in England]]
[[Category:Scheduled monuments in Sedgemoor]]
[[Category:Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in Somerset]]
[[Category:Prehistoric objects in the British Museum]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC]]
[[Category:Neolithic Europe]]
[[Category:Causeways in Europe]]
[[Category:History of Somerset]]
[[Category:Civil engineering]]
[[Category:1970 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Prehistoric wooden trackways in Europe]]