Curators are “devastated” after gold objects dating back 3,000 years to the Bronze Age were stolen from a museum.
More info : bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckmjpep7x6go
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An intact Bronze Age pot and a previously unknown Saxon village with a large hall were among the “exceptional” finds unearthed during a dig.
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Archaeologists have unearthed a loom weight believed to date to the Bronze Age during an excavation.
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A “fantastic bunch of volunteers” have built a replica Iron Age roundhouse on a large Bronze Age causeway dating back 3,500 years.
More info : bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-63095495
Work is under way on a replica Iron Age roundhouse on a large Bronze Age causeway dating back 3,500 years.
More info :
One of England’s “most important Bronze Age finds” has gone on display for the first time near to where it was found.
One winter some 3,000 years ago, a development of highly desirable houses was built on stilts over a tributary of the river Nene in Cambridgeshire, by people whose wealth and lifestyle would still have seemed enviable to medieval peasants. Then six months later it was all over.
Disaster overwhelmed the people and they fled, leaving their clothing and jewellery, tools and furniture, their last meals abandoned in the cooking pots as they tumbled through the burning wicker floors into the water below. Nobody ever came back to retrieve the tonnes of expertly carpentered timbers and the masses of valuable possessions lying in shallow water, which over the centuries all sank together, hidden and preserved by the oozy silt......
Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the “best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain”.
Nice update and article with some cracking photos of some of the finds
pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2012/must-farm-bronze-age-site-the-finds
Hoards of Bronze Age weapons, pots still full of food and elaborate textiles have all been uncovered at an archaeological dig near Peterborough.
The unusually well-preserved finds are due to a fierce fire in 500BC, which caused the artefacts to sink rapidly into the peaty fen waters.
Archaeologist Tim Malim said: “It’s more impressive than Flag Fen.
“The textile finds are unique within England,” he continued. “We’ve never found anything from this date before.”
The archaeologists also quite literally walked in the steps of our Bronze Age ancestors – uncovering human and animal footprints in the mud.
Wooden Piles.
The dig took place at Must Farm, a quarry owned by Hanson at Whittlesey.
For around 15 years, the company has arranged for archaeologists to excavate sites ahead of its clay extractions.
But this dig almost did not take place.
A local archaeologist swam in the quarry pits as a child. He remembered seeing wooden piles in the water, so suggested Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) should explore the site, which was not in the path of the next Hanson clay extraction.
Mr Malim is the head of archaeology for the environmental firm SLR Consulting. The company works closely with Hanson and CAU.
He explained that the settlement was unusual. Instead of being built on dry land, the buildings were attached to a large wooden platform balanced on thick, oak piles driven into the bed of the River Nene.
This helped preserve the finds when a fire broke out sometime between 700BC and 500BC.
‘Really intense heat‘
“Imagine a fire like the one at the pier in Weston-super-Mare,” Mr Malim said. “The wind acts under the supports to build up a really intense heat and incinerated the pier, and it was like that with this platform.
“As a consequence of that the buildings above, and all that was in them, burnt very quickly and dropped into the water where the fire was rapidly quenched and the contents preserved.”
As well as the textiles, rare pottery, wicker fishing traps, wooden walkways and bronze tools have been revealed.
The archaeologists also discovered glass beads previously unknown to this late Bronze Age, so they could be imports from Europe.
The contents of the 50 pots of food are awaiting analysis by experts.
The site is so significant that Hanson has ensured its preservation by building a bund around it to prevent it drying out.
Rising sea levels gradually flooded this part of Cambridgeshire from the late Bronze Age, causing people to retreat to the higher, drier areas, with wooden walkways linking them above the bogs.
Large-scale clay extraction in this area, known as the Flag Fen basin, has given archaeologists the chance to discover how the landscape developed and uncover the way people lived.
Now the Cambridge Archaeological Unit has moved on to another part of the quarry where two burial mounds, or barrows, cobbled tracks and fishing traps have been uncovered.
news.bbc.co.uk/local/cambridgeshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9168000/9168497.stm
Note; its probably within a few kilometres of Flag Fen
A remarkable piece of Neolithic rock art, unlike anything previously found in Eastern England, has been unearthed in the Cambridgeshire village of Over.
The hand-sized artefact, which could date back to 2,500 BC, was found by a participant in a geological weekend course which was being run by the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Continuing Education.
It consists of a hand-sized slab of weathered sandstone with two pairs of concentric circles etched into the surface – a motif which, according to archaeologists, is typical of “Grooved Ware” art from the later Neolithic era.
More here:
physorg.com/news198495505.html
Thousands of years of history were uncovered when excavations started in a village near Stamford last week.
Archaeologists spent three days carving trenches out of the landscape to uncover artefacts which dated the site at Northborough to 6,000 years ago .
The experts think the site is one of only seven of the same type of Neolithic site in the country.
Time Team researcher Karen Kirk explained they thought the site may have been a meeting place or have a ritual significance.
Either way there have been some exciting finds, including a leaf shaped arrow head and a piece of flint.
The team also uncovered pottery from 3,500 BC and animal bone with marks on it consistent with them being hit.
Both presenter Tony Robinson and Dr Francis Pryor, who discovered Flag Fen at Peterborough, were at the site looking at the finds and taking part in the dig alongside archaeologists from around the country.
Using state-of-the-art technology they were able to find archaeological hot spots and dig in the right places.
Karen said they liked to use local people with local knowledge to help them out, and they have also used people with metal detectors to help with digs.
She said: “We had our own diggers, Wessex Archaeology, Northampton Archaeology Unit and Flag Fen diggers on the site.”
The Deepings’ Red Cross ambulance was also on hand to keep a watchful eye on the team and ensure any injuries could be attended to.
Although the site has now been filled in, all finds and significant items have been logged and recorded by the team for the future.
The show will be aired next year between January and March as part of Time Team’s 12th series.
From Stamford Today, 16th September 2004.
Vital clues into how ancient Britons lived thousands of years ago have been unearthed on a bypass site. Among the items uncovered along the A142 between Newmarket and Fordham (Cambridgeshire, England) include skeletons from the Bronze Age and Iron Age, along with a body from Roman times. Flints and pottery, buried since the Neolithic period around 4,500 years ago, have also been discovered, and will now be cleaned and carefully examined to help experts learn more about the history of East Anglia’s ancestors.
“It is very exciting. We have found an awful lot of archaeology in general at the Fordham bypass site,” said Richard Mortimer, project officer at Cambridgeshire County Council’s archaeology field unit. “We found skeletons from the Bronze Age and Iron Age, along with a Roman skeleton and some lovely other pieces, such as flints and pottery. We have also found large, pit-like shafts and a couple of Roman roads – all manner of things which are very rich and very prehistoric. Finding skeletons is not that unusual, but to find the amount of pieces we did, from difference periods but all in the same place, is very rare.”
One of the skeletons dates back around 6,000 years, and coincides with the birth of farming. “This is the first evidence of people settling down and becoming more sedentary, after we had stopped being hunter-gatherers,” added Mr Mortimer. The pieces will be sent away to specialists and cleaned, which will take up to a year.
The team were asked to move onto the site before work begins on the Fordham bypass scheme in July. They then spent around 12 weeks painstakingly clearing the area, using pick axes and shovels, before uncovering all the archaeological gems the site has to offer.
Source: Archeo News/East Anglian Daily Times (11 June 2004)
eadt.co.uk/homeStory.asp?Brand=EADONLINE&Category=NEWS&ItemId=IPED10+Jun+2004+20%3A15%3A34%3A240
Published on 27 March 2004
RELICS dating back 6,000 years to the Neolithic age are being uncovered by archaeologists working on the site of the Fordham bypass.
A team from Cambridgeshire County Council’s archaeology field unit are carrying out “digs” on the line of the road before the construction workers move in to build the new route.
Aileen Connor, project manager, said the Neolithic finds, close to the existing A142 road behind the massive Turners transport depot, had not been expected.
Trial digs carried out two years ago had indicated the presence of early Iron Age remains from about 2,500 years ago.
The finds have been found in what was probably a dumping ground for flint off-cuts and other rubbish from the nearby settlement.
Roman coins and other more recent remains have also been discovered.
Ms Connor said that the project, currently the largest archaeological investigation in Cambridgeshire, was expected to continue until the end of May.
An exhibition of the finds is due to be staged in the village this summer when work on the £12.5 million road begins.
From Online Cambridgeshire News
Quarry sites begin to give up secrets – Cat Bell, The Hunts Post huntspost.co.uk/man/news/
A major awareness campaign, aimed at highlighting the vast wealth of archaeology found in quarry workings in the Lower Ouse Valley is launched this week.
Leading the initiative is Cambridge Archaeological Unit and building materials company Hanson Aggregates, backed with a £50,000 grant by English Heritage from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund. It is based principally on investigations at Hanson sites at Needingworth, Earith and Whittlesey.
Focal point of the launch will be the start of restoration work of a Bronze Age ring ditch, dating back to 1200BC. It is sited near a cluster of five Neolithic or early Bronze Age burial barrows, known as the Over Monument Group, regarded by English Heritage as one of the most important sites in the Fens.
Chris Evans of Cambridge Archaeological Unit, said: “The site is designated as an ancient moment and is of huge significance. We propose to subtly re-instate the earthwork. This will involve scooping out its profile to a depth of just over a metre, creating a bank-like effect about four metres wide around the enclosure.”
Brian Chapman, Hanson’s Anglia unit manager, added: “Quarrying and archaeological investigations have made a major contribution to our understanding of early life in the Fens. It is vital we share this information with the local people.”
The campaign has five key components:
A website based on information gathered from Hanson’s sites at Needingworth, Earith and Whittlesey;
Schools material, relevant to Key Stage 2 and available through Hanson’s own education initiative – Material World and its website.
Handling collections for schools and quarry visits based on local finds and dovetailing with the schools’ material. The collections will relate to Roman and earlier Prehistoric finds.
Two exhibitions will be available for use in libraries and schools. One will exclusively concern the ‘Romans at Earith’ and the other will largely focus on results from Hanson’s flagship quarry at Needingworth.
The restoration of the ring ditch at the Over barrow cemetery and the erection of information boards.
