60 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2019
LETTER FROM ENGLAND
part of Cambridgeshire dates to the
Neolithic period ( 4000 – 2500 b.c.),
one of the most revolutionary eras in
England’s history. As farming became
widespread for the first time, forests
began to disappear. People all across
Britain began to construct the island’s
first large-scale monuments—A 14
archaeologists have discovered three
circular earthen henges, the largest of
which measures 165 feet across. Most
scholars believe that this type of henge
was used for ritual gatherings and
ceremonies, suggesting that this area
may have had sacred meaning to those
who lived here as long as 6 , 000 years
ago. Even though the sacred connota-
tions these enigmatic enclosures once
possessed may not have carried over
to subsequent eras, they continued
to be respected landmarks. “These
monuments survived as large physical
features from the Neolithic through
the Bronze Age,
through the
Roman era, and
were still visible
in the Anglo-
Saxon period,”
says Sherlock.
Buildings that
were constructed
centuries, or even
millennia, later seem to
have been carefully arranged
around the henges, as if not to
disturb them. “They were probably
still being used in some sort of way,
maybe as a place that at certain times
of the year you would come and meet
and celebrate,” Sherlock adds.
For the next 4 , 000 years, techno-
logical advances marked the advent
of new epochs, including the Bronze
Age ( 2500 – 800 b.c.) and the Iron
Age ( 800 b.c.– a.d. 43 ). During theseperiods, too,
Cambridgeshire’s
inhabitants
reshaped their
landscape. The
A 14 archaeolo-
gists have found
Bronze Age fields
demarcated by
large ditches
that served
as territorial
boundaries. The
researchers have
also unearthed
a large Bronze
Age funerary bar-
row containing
65 burials near
the Great Ouse.
Another barrow,
containing 50
more burials, was
identified a few
miles away. In
total, 150 Bronze
Age human buri-
als have been
found scattered
throughout the
project’s pur-
view.
The team
has located as
many as 15 farm-
steads and settle-
ment sites dating
to the Iron Age.
Among these, they
have unearthed evidence
of daily life, including weaving
combs, loom weights, agricul-
tural tools, and coins. Microscopic
soil analysis has indicated that Iron
Age farmers were cultivating spelt and
barley in the surrounding fields. And
there is even evidence, in the form of
charred and fermented grains, that the
farmers were brewing beer, the earliest
indication of this practice in Britain.(continued on page 62 )An archaeologist (above) excavates a Roman pottery kiln. It is
one of approximately 40 such kilns that have been identified
during the A14 project. A locally produced Roman ceramic
flask (right) bears a simple painted decoration.
t
AA
aa
f
th
p
vh
m
st
m
t
A
h
o