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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 |
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The Sweet Track
About 6,000 years old, the Sweet Track is one of the oldest manmade structures in Europe. The Sweet Track is a single line of wooden planks that runs for about 1,800 meters (well over a mile) across a swamp in Somerset, England. Evidence is that this ancient road was overwhelmed by the swamp after only 10 years of use. A jadite axehead found along the Sweet Track probably came from the Swiss Alpa, indicating crossChannel commerce even 6,000 years ago. (Lloyd, Philippa; "A Long and Ancient Road," Nature, 345:577, 1990. Also: Antiquity, 64:210, 199.)