University of Cambridge Sports Ground, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge: An Archaeological Excavation

Abstract

Excavation covering 1.4ha at the University of Cambridge Sports Ground revealed four main episodes of activity. In the first of these, a cluster of Middle Bronze Age pits were the site’s earliest features, although a handful of worked flints represent the earliest human presence at the site from at least the later Neolithic. Aside from two Early Iron Age pits, which mark the second episode of the site’s activity, no further prehistoric activity was encountered. This was all situated within the south half of the site, near to or upon a geological junction, where a diamict gravel ridge passed downslope into Gault Clay, and perhaps where a perched water table could be located. The ridge later became the focus for Roman settlement in the site’s third episode of activity, distinguished by three main phases covering the 1st-3rd centuries. Phases 1 and 2 relate to a primary and secondary phase of settlement. There is clearly considerable overlap across these phases, which may have equally been presented as a single episode of activity; however, their division is warranted on the basis of mismatching feature alignment, albeit with respecting spatial arrangement. A valid assumption is that one develops from the other, where a settlement core of 1st–2nd century date lies to the west of the site and was remoulded within an existing fieldsystem. Stratigraphically later within this sequence, Phase 3 sees a ditched trackway – the provenance of which must lay within the preceding phases – traverse the site from south to north, with further evidence of settlement spreading from the west. The ceramic evidence shows that by the mid-3rd century the majority of settlement activity had ceased. Two notable highlights of the Roman activity are an early pottery kiln with an assemblage of kiln furniture, and the rare finding of Italian-type sigillata pottery that points to an earlier and potentially high status origin for part of the settlement. The final, fourth episode of activity, relates to post-Medieval furrow cultivation which lay across much of the site, though with little impact to earlier deposits.