Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 112

The extensive prehistoric landscapes of the western and southern fen edge have, for many years, dominated the archaeology of the Early–Middle Bronze Age in the region. However, within the last decade, large-scale excavations to the south of Cambridge particularly have revealed extensive Bronze Age remains that are redressing this previous geographical bias. Recent evidence from the new Marleigh development, near Fen Ditton, excavated between 2015 and 2018, provides an important addition to a growing corpus of southern Cambridgeshire sites and an opportunity to further enhance our understanding of Bronze Age activity in the region. This paper presents the results of the excavation of two Early Bronze Age funerary monuments and a Middle Bronze Age enclosed settlement recorded amongst later Iron Age and Early Roman settlement remains at the High Ditch Road site.

The National Trust estate at Wimpole in south-west Cambridgeshire is famous for its 17th-century house, extensive landscape gardens and parkland. However, archaeological excavations on the estate at Lamp Hill revealed the site’s early history in the form of a Late Iron Age/Conquest period farmstead with significant and unusual characteristics. Principal amongst the discoveries were distinctive groups of artefacts, including brooches, coins, items with a military association and votives. Particularly notable is a copper-alloy spatula handle of a figure bearing a torc, possibly a Continental import. Links with the Roman army may explain how some of the finds reached the site, while the effects of the Boudican revolt may also be detected in the pre-Flavian date of much of the metalwork and, to a certain extent, the pottery.

It is well known that Reach was an important medieval inland port, connected to the river Cam and the Fenland waterways by an artificial channel of unknown date, Reach Lode. It is widely believed that the Lode was first dug in Roman times. Reach Lode is particularly important because, uniquely among the East Cambridgeshire lodes, it has seemed that there was reliable evidence for dating its origin. However, when the evidence for a Roman origin is examined, it becomes apparent that the attribution should be reviewed, forcing consideration of an alternative Anglo-Saxon or post-Norman Conquest date for a lode. As will be shown, there is a fundamental problem in the literature from as early as 1933 and continuing up to the present day. Scholars have assumed that a Roman waterway connection between Reach and the Cam at Upware could only have been achieved by means of an artificial channel virtually all the way. What has not been considered is the possibility that a natural stream may have been used.

Even as economic growth in the later 1700s brought farmers opportunity nationwide, much of the Fens drained for them 125 years earlier was threatened by flood. The land was saved partly by local engineering. Around the Haddenham Level, drainage windmills were built or improved and, latterly, two catchwaters cut. Fieldwork was undertaken on two of the mills and both catchwaters. Diverse documentation helps to specify chronology and causes from local to global. The received interpretation of how the 'Age of the Windmill' ended can be revised.

Research into Cambridge’s later prehistoric pottery collections, curated by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has identified a small, largely forgotten, group of Late Bronze Age pottery from Green End Road, Chesterton, accessioned in the early 1930s. Although components of the collection have been illustrated in the intervening years, and assigned varying dates, the group has never been fully published. This paper examines the history of the collection and provides a fully qualified overview of the material. It discusses the date of the pottery and its affinities with other published assemblages from the Cambridge Region. Importantly, it highlights that the group was recovered from the same locale as a large contemporary ‘founder’s hoard’.

Evaluation and excavation at Buryfield, Bury, revealed evidence of a settlement dating from the Early to Mid-Roman period. Two successive large rectilinear agricultural enclosures were excavated. The pottery assemblage from the site indicates that the people who farmed this land were relatively affluent, and that the farmsteads they lived in may have been associated with, or have been part of, a villa estate situated within easy reach of Godmanchester (Durovigutum), eight miles to the south-west. A Middle Iron Age ditch was the only feature to clearly pre-date the Roman activity. Modern activity comprised the remains of two anti-aircraft searchlight batteries situated to the south-east of nearby Upwood Airfield, an important airbase during World War II.