Abstract: |
The Flag Fen Basin on the western margins of the fens of eastern England (City of Peterborough, formerly Cambridgeshire) has been the subject of nearly continuous archaeological research since about 1900. Most of the research described in this report took place in response to building projects during the last three decades of the twentieth century. There are summaries in French and German. A Bronze Age ditched field system was recorded on the dry land of Fengate, west of the Basin, in 1971--78; subsequent research revealed a similar system at Northey east of the Basin. These fields were defined by ditches and banks, and grouped into larger holdings by droveways running to the wetland edge. The Fengate field system was for the management of livestock, which was grazed on the wetland pastures of Flag Fen in summer and returned to dry grazing around the fen edge in winter. At the heart of the Fengate field system was a pattern of droveways, yards and paddocks, interpreted as a communal marketplace for exchange of livestock and for social gatherings. The major droveway through these stockyards continued to the edge of regularly flooded land at the Power Station site, where its line was prolonged by a post alignment that ran across Flag Fen to Northey, crossing a contemporary timber platform. The post alignment was used between about 1300 and 900 BC. Preservation conditions in Flag Fen enabled detailed study of woodworking, mainly of large timbers and the use of socketed bronze axes. Wooden artefacts included a tripartite wheel, an axle and a scoop. Animal bone and pottery showed domestic assemblages at the Power Station site, but ritual at Flag Fen. Some 275 items of prehistoric metalwork, mainly bronze and tin, were found along the post alignment and at Flag Fen. Many had been deliberately broken before being placed in the water; some items dated to the Iron Age were deposited long after the post alignment had been abandoned. At Flag Fen the post alignment was accompanied by five levels of horizontal wood, which served as reinforcement, foundation or path. The vertical posts formed guides, walls or palisades. Transverse partitions divided the alignment into segments, which may have been used by different groups for ritual purposes. Recent commercial excavations at Fengate are also summarised. These provide evidence for a Neolithic organised landscape and for LBA/EIA settlement related to the pits found in the twentieth century; they also alter understanding of the Iron Age and Roman periods in the area. Includes separately authored reports on: |