1073319. Cite this via datacite

Title:

Evaluation survey and excavation at Wnadlebury ringwork, Cambridgeshire, 1994-7

Issue:

Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 93

Series:

Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society

Volume:

Page Start/End:

15 - 66

Downloads:

PCAS_XCIII_2004_015-066_French.pdf (7 MB) :

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Licence Type:

ADS Terms of Use and Access

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5284/1073319

Publication Type:

Journal

Abstract:

Evaluation investigations conducted in and around the Wandlebury ringwork in 1994--97 revealed an extensive area of later prehistoric and Romano-British settlement, both inside and outside the surviving earthworks. There is every likelihood that an earlier Iron Age settlement was located on the hill-top prior to the construction of the first rampart and ditch in the fifth century BC, and this appears to have been located outside and to the southeast of a preceding post-built wooden enclosure (undated but possibly Late Bronze Age/very Early Iron Age). Settlement activity predominated in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, but in the later Iron Age was greatly reduced. A second rampart and ditch were constructed on the inner side of the first rampart in the first century BC and lasted on a less extensive scale into the earlier Romano-British period (first--second centuries AD). Features excavated inside and outside the ring consisted principally of pits, but with an indication of structures which might be revealed by further excavation. The pits were primarily used for grain storage, but there was also evidence of `closure deposits' including articulated animals, a male human skeleton (buried face down with his hands possibly bound), small pots, and decorative spindle whorls and bone plaques. Evidence for repeated episodes of grain storage and handling was documented using detailed micro-stratigraphic and bioarchaeological analyses. Other environmental analyses suggest that the economy relied on sheep husbandry in an already open chalk downland landscape throughout the Iron Age and that cattle were predominant in the Roman period. Other recent investigations in the vicinity of Wandlebury suggest that this was just one substantial settlement in a highly developed and extensively occupied landscape in later prehistoric and Roman times. Includes specialist reports on

Author:

Charles A I French

Year of Publication:

2004

Subjects / Periods:

	PIT (Monument Type England)
Bone (Auto Detected Subject)
Human Skeleton (Auto Detected Subject)
Postbuilt Wooden Enclosure (Auto Detected Subject)
First Century Bc (Auto Detected Temporal)
ROMAN (Historic England Periods)
Fifth Century Bc (Auto Detected Temporal)
Wandlebury Ringwork (Auto Detected Subject)
LATER PREHISTORIC (Historic England Periods)
	DITCH (Monument Type England)
Fourth Centuries Bc (Auto Detected Temporal)
IRON AGE (Historic England Periods)
Decorative Spindle Whorls (Auto Detected Subject)
Sheep (Auto Detected Subject)
Earthworks (Auto Detected Subject)
Cattle (Auto Detected Subject)
	SETTLEMENT (Monument Type England)
LATE BRONZE AGE (Historic England Periods)
EARLY IRON AGE (Historic England Periods)

Note:

[OS TL 4940 5343]

Source:

ADS Archive (ADS Archive)

Relations:

Created Date:

10 Jun 2005