More bad news for Scheduled Ancient Monuments: drainage of the Somerset levels for agriculture has destroyed internationally-important sites.
In work funded by EH, the Environment Agency and Somerset County Council, small trenches were opened to check waterlogged sites where well- preserved organic remains had previously been identified. The stakes, wicker frames, fish traps, village sites and plank surfaces of a network of tracks across boggy ground illustrated how prehistoric people lived and hunted.
However, most of the sites examined have been seriously damaged and two scheduled trackways have disintegrated completely. The internationally famous Iron Age lake village at Meare was so damaged 'that the only remaining organic components were shrivelled and contorted wood fragments.' The only sites in good condition are part of the Sweet Track, a main road built around 5,800 years ago, in a nature reserve where the original water level is maintained, and the Glastonbury Lake Village which is owned by a trust. The report, published in November's British Archaeology, blames the use of more powerful pumps since the second world war for the destruction.

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