Prehistoric Britain
Seahenge
2050 BC, Norfolk, East Anglia, England.
Perhaps showing a child that, beneath the surface, usually hidden and unseen, a network of roots extends in all directions.
'The circle of wooden posts they found poking through a beach at Holme-next-the-Sea in 1998 has nothing to do with the sea,' said Miranda. 'Even though it's now called Seahenge. The shoreline might well have moved quite a distance in four thousand years and Seahenge was probably miles away from the coast when the monument was built. Southern England has sunk about four metres since then, to compensate for the rebound of Scotland when all the ice disappeared at the end of the last Ice Age. And if you factor in all the coastal erosion and longshore deposition as well, it might have been quite a way inland.'
'So in a leafy glade, possibly miles from the sea,' said Quintin, 'Bronze Age farmers carefully excavated an oak tree, turned it upside-down, planted it again and enclosed it in a wooden palisade that it's possible only children were able to squeeze into. Only a child could squeeze through the wooden uprights of the palisade and view the meaningful object within.'
'A religious sculpture,' replied Miranda.
'An upside-down tree with its trunk disappearing into the ground and its roots reaching up towards the sky.'
'Fine art, like in the old cathedrals, viewed in its own private chapel. Something you would never ordinarily see. Perhaps showing a child that, beneath the surface, usually hidden and unseen, a network of roots extends in all directions.'