Possible Neolithic or Bronze Age net sinker at Pledgdon Hall (EHER 4546)

Wooden ring object found in a peat deposit during the digging of a reservoir at Pledgdon Hall Farm.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Object found in a peat deposit during the digging of a reservoir at Pledgdon Hall Farm. Disc manufactured from oak, split radials from parent timber. One side retains the unworked surface of the ray, the other is worked to 'square up' the natural triangular profile of a radial split and subsequently damaged-it is suggested that the ring was originally of regular thickness and oval in shape with an oval perforation. In style and manufacture it is tentatively attributable to any prehistoric period but it is tentatively suggested as belonging to the neolithic or the bronze age. <1> The reservoir where it was found is in a shallow valley. Wooden objects, especially prehistoric, are rare in British archaeology. No parallels are known, so far, in Britain. Possible parallels in Denmark and North Germany, suggested by Veryan Head, among the so-called 'net floats'. One has a radio-carbon date in the 4th millennium BC. The peat is post-Roman so the chances of the disc being prehistoric are much reduced. However, the object resembles stone discs of the late neolithic which may have been net weights. It was not possible to date the object in relation to the peat by pollen analysis alone. Site Assessment = Object conserved in the Lab at the Institute of Archaeology, London. <2> Whether of prehistoric or later date, the function of this object is unknown though some connection with fishing and or fowling seems likely in view of the context in which it was found. Unsuitable for C14 dating at the moment owing to its having been treated with polyethylene glycol solution. <3> There are pictures of continental parallels in the SMR. <4> <5> A drawing of the object is in the SMR. <6>