A Bronze Age shovel is one of Britain’s oldest wooden tools –

An archaeological excavation on the outskirts of Poole Harbor in Dorset, southern England, has unearthed a shovel, one of the oldest and most complete wooden tools ever discovered in Britain. Radiocarbon dating of the wood found it was made during the Middle Bronze Age, about 3,500-3,400 years ago. There is only one tool in the UK that rivals this tool in age and function: the Brynlow Shovel, which was discovered by miners in an old shaft at the Alderley Edge copper mine in Cheshire in 1875. It is slightly older, dating to around 1750 B.C.

As part of a wetland habitat creation project, the Wessex Archeology team has been conducting surveys of the Moorish site of Arne. When the shovel handle first emerged from the soil, archaeologists thought it might have been a tree root. The outline of the shovel is quickly revealed, marking it as a machined wooden tool. The water-saturated, anaerobic environment of coastal soils preserved shovels for thousands of years. To ensure its preservation following recovery, the shovel was quickly transported to the Wessex Archaeological Laboratory where it was cleaned and stabilized.

Analysis of a small sample from the shovel determined that the wood was oak harvested from the center of the tree. It is a very hard, dense wood, making the shovel a powerful tool.

The shovel was hewn from a solid piece of wood and required extensive handcrafting hours, making it a treasured tool for its prehistoric owner. If it is destroyed or damaged, it can easily be reused and adapted for other purposes, which makes the piece’s incredible survival all the more fascinating.

By the Middle Bronze Age, people across the country had adapted to the rural agricultural lifestyle we might recognize today, with farmsteads, villages and extensive field systems. However, there is little evidence of permanent domestic settlement where the shovels were found. Instead, archaeologists are exploring the idea that people visited the site seasonally.

During this period, the Arne Marshes were prone to flooding in winter, then became dry in summer. This would have provided the people of the past with the opportunity to take advantage of its rich natural resources. It could have been used as a place to cut and dry peat, as pasture for grazing animals, or for hunting, fishing, gathering rushes for thatch and basket weaving, and perhaps growing crops. The shovel was found in a circular ditch that may have served a variety of functions, including as a means of drying or protecting these useful resources.

The shovel is currently undergoing conservation to ensure further research can be conducted without damaging the prehistoric wood. Meanwhile, Wessex Archeology scanned the shovel and created a 3D model so that it could be examined in detail virtually.