Archaeological Excavations at West Fen Road and St. John's Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire: The Trinity and Runciman Lands: Assessment Report

Abstract

Excavations in advance of housing development on the western edge of the city of Ely revealed archaeological evidence from the Neolithic, Late Bronze Age, Middle to Late Iron Age and Early Roman periods. The Neolithic was represented only by a spread of burnt material associated with a tree throw. Sporadic activity in the Late Bronze Age was associated with a small pond which had subsequently silted up. Elements of ditched enclosures which may be of Middle Iron Age date were succeeded by a phase of Late Iron Age (1st century BC/AD) settlement characterized by ephemeral ring gullies, shallow pits and spreads of midden deposits. Subsequently, in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD, two rectilinear ditched enclosures were laid out to the south of the Late Iron Age settlement, further up the slope, probably for the control of livestock or to mark out cultivated fields. Later in the same period, the southern of the two enclosures went out of use and was replaced by systems of narrow linear gullies possibly associated with early Roman lazybed or strip field cultivation.