Five wooden wells from the Iron Age and Roman times found over a spring near Southampton

In brief 3 key points

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• Archaeologists found five wooden wells over a natural spring north of Southampton
• Four were made from hollowed-out oak trunks; one is radiocarbon dated to 719–396 BC
• The fifth, Roman, well was a rectangular pit lined with timber planks and stakes

Archaeologists have found five well-preserved wooden water wells north of Southampton in Hampshire, the oldest dating to the Iron Age. All of them tap the same natural spring, which people probably used for hundreds of years.

A team from Archaeology South-East, part of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, made the find ahead of a new water pipe between Otterbourne and Southampton. The Southampton Link Main is funded by Southern Water.

Hollowed oak trunks

Four wells are thought to date to the Iron Age. They were made from hollowed-out oak trunks slotted into pits, the largest 70 centimetres across. Radiocarbon dating places one of them between 719 and 396 BC, in the Early Iron Age.

One well was held in place by a ring of stakes. Another was repaired while still in use, with a wooden shovel blade propping up a broken section.

A Roman rebuild

The fifth well was built in Roman times, and in a different way. Builders dug a shallow rectangular pit and lined it with timber planks and stakes, mostly of oak. Pottery in and around the wells shows the spring stayed in use into the later Roman period.

“The oxygen-starved conditions caused by the wet soil around the spring prevented the wood's decomposition, preserving the ancient timbers in exquisite detail. We can even see axe marks on some of the timbers.”

Rachael Geoghegan, UCL Archaeology South-East

Waterlogged wood specialist Hannah Street lifted the Iron Age logs with a conservator in as complete a state as possible. The team also made a sequence of 3D models with photogrammetry as the excavation went on.

Kept in water

At the lab in Portslade, the timbers are stored in large tanks of water, because oxygen would destroy them. Researchers are recording tool marks and joints, and plan to date some Roman timbers by dendrochronology, the study of tree rings.

Sources (2)

Official announcementfrom UCL Archaeology South-East and UCL Institute of Archaeology

• Five well-preserved wooden wells from Iron Age and Roman periods found during pipeline excavations in England (Archaeology News)
• Five well-preserved wooden wells from Iron Age and Roman times found on a pipeline route in England (UCL)

Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars

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