Overview
- Defra and Historic England have awarded £700,000 through the Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service to fund a large, six‑month excavation at Flag Fen next year, to be directed by Mark Knight.
- Project teams say recent evaluations show active decay of waterlogged timbers and organic deposits and warn that about 40% of the buried archaeology could be lost within months without urgent recording.
- The dig will open the largest area yet over the monument to record the western post alignment and other vulnerable features so archaeologists can better understand the causeway’s function, sequence of repairs and long lifespan.
- Organisers plan to combine scientific recording with community volunteering, progressive training for supervisors and tour leaders, and site improvements aimed at removing Flag Fen from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register.
- Flag Fen is a rare 3,300–3,500‑year‑old timber causeway whose peat-preserved wood and organic finds offer unique evidence of Bronze Age life that will be irreversibly lost if exposed to oxygen or fire.