Archaeological Investigations: The Old Bishop's Palace, Ely

Abstract

A narrow trench dug to install new railings along the front of the Old Bishop's Palace revealed part of a previously unknown medieval cemetery established in the 14th century or earlier. Five burials and the bones of at least two more disturbed skeletons were investigated. Other early featuires revealed within the trench were a substantial wall foundation and three mortared floors. The early features were all truncated by a general levelling of the area, probably related to the construction and extension of the Bishop's Palace in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. This episode of levelling was overlaid by a pebbled surface which served either as a roadway or the precinct of the Bishop's Palace in the 16th century.