Pic: BBC News

A Bronze Age road has been found below Swansea’s shifting foreshore (Wales). The short section of track was discovered by a metal detector enthusiast and archaeologists have now dated it to around 4,000 years ago. Woven from narrow branches of oak and alder the structure was covered in a thin layer of brushwood to provide a level walking-surface

It was found in March when it was uncovered by storms but has since disappeared back under the marine clay. Brian Price, a member of the Swansea Metal Detecting Club, reported the discovery opposite the Brynmill area to the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust. A sample was sent to the Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Laboratory in Florida for dating and was found to be from the early Bronze Age – sometime
between 2140 and 1930 BCE.

Andrew Sherman, assistant project officer, said:

“During the early Bronze Age the climate was drier and warmer than today and the
sea level was significantly lower. The trackway was therefore probably
built through a wet, marshy environment. Because it has been eroded by
the tide it is impossible to tell whether the entire trackway was
composed of hurdles, or whether occasional hurdles were laid to cross
particularly wet patches of ground.”

The trust said there was very little evidence of Early Bronze Age
settlements in the area with lots of funeral and ritual sites such as
barrows, cairns and standing stones, but no habitation structures.

The explanation for this may simply lie in the nature of a nomadic
existence, which militates against the construction of substantial
dwellings,”

added Mr Sherman.

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