{"id":63060,"date":"2025-03-06T14:46:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/?p=63060"},"modified":"2025-03-06T14:46:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:46:24","slug":"archaeologists-make-new-discovery-at-sheffield-castle-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/03\/06\/archaeologists-make-new-discovery-at-sheffield-castle-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists make new discovery at Sheffield Castle site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An exciting discovery has been made at Sheffield Castle by the Wessex Archaeology team who are currently excavating there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four 17th-century wooden stakes, around a metre in length, were carefully excavated from the moat. Analysis so far shows they could have formed part of an \u2018abatis\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abatises are a well-known method of fortification. The wooden stakes would have been arranged chaotically and dug into the ground to form a vicious barrier, or \u2018killing zone\u2019, where defenders of the castle could dispatch them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time the wood from an abatis has been recovered. Archaeologists usually find only the shadow of where the wood had once been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
One of the wooden stakes that was discovered at Sheffield Castle- Credit to Wessex Archaeology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The timbers were preserved within the remains of the six-metre-deep moat and the waterlogged ground provided the ideal conditions for their preservation, meaning that they survived for almost 400 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashley Tuck, the archaeologist leading the dig on behalf of Wessex Archaeology, said:\u202f\u202f\u201cSo often we are told about Civil War defences like abatises being used at historic properties across the country, but usually there is little to see of these important features.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To be able to hold the very wood to which the defenders of Sheffield Castle trusted their lives is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added: \u201cWe know that these timbers and the abatis they formed were ultimately unsuccessful in protecting the castle from being destroyed, but they paint a picture of the brutalities of the war and add to our understanding of this turbulent period in Sheffield\u2019s past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n