Archaeologists Unearth ‘Astonishing’ Wooden Spade, Preserved in an English Trench for 3,500 Years

If they’re lucky, archaeologists find bones, pottery, stone tools, beads and other sturdy remnants of the past. However, they’re less likely to unearth wooden artifacts, which tend to disintegrate over time.

That’s why researchers were thrilled to discover a Bronze Age wooden spade in England. Radiocarbon dating suggests the “astonishing” artifact is around 3,500 years old—making it “one of the oldest and most complete wooden tools” ever uncovered in the United Kingdom, according to a statement from Wessex Archaeology.

“I’d describe it as a once-in-a-career type find. It’s so rare [that] it’s not something I’d even put on my bucket list that I’d like to find as an archaeologist,” Phil Trim, an archaeologist who helped lead the recovery at the excavation site, tells the Independent’s Salma Ouaguira. “It’s a really unique object, to find something that’s wooden of that age.”

Researchers with Wessex Archaeology have spent the past few years excavating wetlands on the southern coast of England, not far from Poole Harbour. They’re digging to ensure artifacts aren’t lost or destroyed during the Moors at Arne project, an ongoing initiative to develop 370 acres of wetland habitats in the area.

They found the spade in a ring gully, a type of circular trench that was probably used to manage flooding around buildings. At first, they thought it might be a tree root. But upon closer inspection, they realized it was a nearly complete tool.

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Now, experts are working to preserve the artifact, so it will remain in stable condition in storage. The spade was able to survive for millennia because of the region’s soggy conditions.

“[Preservation] occurs where it remains permanently wet through burial and excludes the oxygen,” Ed Treasure, an environmental archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology, tells BBC News’ Katie Waple. “So unlike in a normal archaeological site, where organic remains like wood would disappear, they can become preserved for thousands of years, as this one demonstrates. But they are also very fragile, even when preserved.”

Around the time the spade was made, the region’s nomadic residents were starting to settle down and grow crops. The researchers don’t think they were living in the wetlands year-round. Instead, they probably returned seasonally to collect reeds, cut peat or let their animals graze.

The spade appears to have been carved from a single piece of oak. Archaeologists aren’t sure how it was made or what it was used for, but they have several theories.

“It might have been used to cut peat on the site,” Treasure tells New Scientist’s Michael Marshall. “It may also have been used to dig the ring gully in which it was found.”

The team hopes that additional research will reveal more insights about the spade, as well as the people who inhabited the region thousands of years ago.

“We’re working across a vast landscape that is dominated by nature with very little to suggest to the naked eye that much human activity has taken place here,” says Greg Chuter, a government archaeologist, in the statement. “However, just beneath the surface, we've uncovered evidence of the ways humans have cleverly adapted to the challenges presented by this particular environment for over 3,000 years.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.