Yes peatlands can be valuable archives storing interesting "documents" over millennia. The finding on the added photo looks like a tree bark and indeed it was just beside of a more or less well preserved wooden trunk about 100 cm below the original peat soil surface. Can anyone confirm if my assumption is correct and if yes what a tree species has such a bark?! I mean it can be something else (art made by humans?!) but it is definitely wood and of course it must not have grown necessarily in the peatland itself but could be transported to this place by humans or maybe a storm surge from the nearby sea 500-1000 years ago. This time estimate is based on a peat growth rate of about 1-2 mm/year.
Definitely tree bark. Do a species inventory of local trees and go from there :)
Sorry I forgot to mention where the site is located: it is at the west coast of Denmark (see the map attached).
@Andrew; Thanks! I have not seen such a bark on local trees and I am rather sure it is not an extinct local species but I am not a plant biologist and might be on the wrong track anyway?! My first thought was it is a residual from ivy vines which are of course not growing in fen peatlands but yes as I said before it can be just "imported" e.g. on the sea way, maybe, really curious to find out what it is!
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