Worked wood from Bouldnor Cliff

Eroding Mesolithic forest of alder (Alnus glutinosa), lime (Tilia sp.), and oak (Quercus sp.) at the submerged site of
Bouldnor Cliff, West Solent, Isle of Wight.

Formation of the English Channel, the Solent, and
Southampton Waters.

8,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic, the Solent was a lush forested valley. The Isle of Wight was not an island at all, and for that matter, neither was Britain. As melting glacial ice raised sea levels ever higher, the valley landscape was slowly inundated so that the animals, plants, and people living there had to adapt quickly to a new marshland and finally coastal environment. The trees that had sheltered our ancestors were eventually submerged beneath the waves of the Solent.

From this intriguing lost world under the Solent has come this assemblage of worked wood, which is thought to represent the remains of a logboat or a logboat construction site.

Captivating worked wood from 12m under the Solent at Bouldnor Cliff.

These and other pieces coming from a depth of 12m under the Solent, preserved by a covering layer of peat, display tool marks, some of which cannot be identified as having been made by the stone tools commonly associated with prehistoric woodworking. To gather a whole story from these bits of wood is impossible without further research. Click here to see how you can help contribute to the ongoing research at this unique archaeological site in Britain.

This plank preserves cut marks from a
wedge or possibly an adze. You can
see where the tool was removed then
sent in again to take out a larger piece of wood.

This tangentially split oak plank can be seen in the above photo;
here you can see where the wood was charred after
having been worked. The event that caused this
burning is still unknown.

Seen as a close-up of a long forked pole, there are two cut marks here:
one going from 12:00 to 9:00 and the second going from 12:00
to 5:00. Can you see them both?

Believe it or not, this is a pine
post, cut loose from the roots of
a young tree and replanted where
it was needed. 

This piece can also be seen in the photo of the assemblage above, center far right.
In the photo, the rounded cutting edge of a hollowing or scooping tool can be seen.

Some of the most enigmatic examples of worked wood from
Bouldnor Cliff are these odd planks. They are formed flat one one
side and rounded on the other so that the transverse section is
semicircular in shape. Several of them retain forked prongs on the
ends, possibly to keep them held in place. Their function remains
an utter mystery.

The lovely transverse section of the pine
post above, which shows a recession at the top
where a notch was cut to hold a rope or
leather tethers.

Clearly a piece of a thin plank, the cut mark on the left side
almost looks like a scarf join! Scarf joins are made to secure
two shorter planks or beams together into a longer single unit.