Bronze Age fuel: the oldest direct evidence for deep peat cutting and stack construction?

Abstract

IntroductionPeat has been used as a fuel and as an additive to arable fields to aid fertility since prehistoric times in many parts of northern Europe (e.g. Fenton 1986; Whittle et al. 1986). The cutting of deep peat and the construction of peat stacks as part of the drying process has been documented from Medieval times, but the antiquity of such activities is unknown. Peat stacks are ephemeral structures whose purpose is to aid the drying of hard-won, wet peat in areas where other fuels such as wood and coal are expensive or unobtainable. They are typically cleared within a few months of construction and leave no traces of their former presence. Here we report the unprecedented discovery of a ‘fossil’ pyramidal peat stack dating to the 2nd millennium BC, from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Individual turves contained finger and thumb impressions and pollen analysis reveals environmental conditions at around the time of cutting. The method of extracting and stacking the peat used some 3500 years ago may be similar to that used today.

Environmental impacts around the time of Norse landnám in the Qorlortoq valley, Eastern Settlement, Greenland

“…Peat use is known from Neolithic contexts in Shetland (Calder, 1956;Whittle et al, 1986). The oldest direct evidence for deep peat cutting and stack construction, from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland (Branigan et al, 2002), possibly dates to the Bronze Age, whilst Iron Age peat digging tools have been recovered and peat extraction pits have been identified at archaeological sites across Denmark (Christensen and Fiedel, 2003). Kaland (1986) reports that peat cutting across the coastal heaths in Norway dates back at least 1000 years before present, where 'peat mould' (dried, crumbled peat) was regularly used as bedding in byres due to its capacity to soak up the liquid part of the dung.…”

LateHolocene environmental change in southwestGreenland – fossil insect assemblages fromTasiusaq

“…There is a medieval Norse saga reference to peat‐cutting in Orkney (Heimskringla: Haraldar Saga Hárfagra , 28), and evidence for the exploitation of peat in the Western Isles of Scotland goes back to the Bronze Age (Branigan et al . ).…”

A scalped peatscape on Nólsoy, Faroe Islands / Uppskornar torvheiðar í Nólsoy

“…The history of peat work ing in the Scottish islands has a much greater longevity than that of the Faroes, and peatland exploitation and the archaeological features revealed from ben eath the peat cover extend beyond the time of Norse immigration and into prehistory as far back as the Neolithic, perhaps some 5500 years ago, or even further (Whittle et al, 1986;Edwards 1996;Branigan et al, 2002).…”