archaeology at cambourne

8/14/2019 Archaeology at Cambourne

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The First Houses

A few stone tools, including a 4,500

year old flint arrowhead, show thatduring the Stone Age people visitedthe area, hunting and gathering

food. At this time much ofthe

landscape was covered by trees.

The earliest houses just two or

three - at Cambourne date to the

Bronze Age, just over 3,000 yearsago. The buildings are small and

circular. They would have had a

conical thatched roof.

Not many objects were found so

these Bronze Age settlements mayhave been short-lived. Crops could

have been grown in woodland

clearings. Eventually, by the Iron

Age, much ofthe woodland coverhad been cut down.

Cambourne's Story

Before Cambourne was built, teams

of archaeologists painstakinglyexcavated buried tracesof ahidden history.

The discoveries madeshow thatthefirstsettlement at Cambourne dates

back over 3,000 years, tothe Bronze

Age. People continued to liveherein Iron Age and Roman times butit

seemsthatin Anglo-Saxon times

settlements moved tothesiteoftoday 's villages.

The new settlement Cambourneis

the firsttimethat peoplehave livedheresince Roman times.

The First HousesThe First Houses

Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story

Left: Excavating Roman pot containing glass jarMain: Part of Lower Cambourne under excavationBottom: Excavating Roman pewter plates

Top: Reconstructed roundhouse from Westhay, Somerset

Inset: Flint arrowheadBottom: Roundhouse ditches at Lower Cambourne


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The First Farms

By 400 BC the area was permanently

settled. There was at leastone IronAge farm in each valley, closeto astream. The farmshad twoorthree

round houses. Droveways wereused

toherd animalsintothe farmyard,keeping them away from the crops

grown nearby.

Tiny snailsshellsin the farmyard

ditchshow that

it was floodedin winter astheheavy clay soils

areslow to drain.

The farmers kept cattle and sheep

and some pigs. The wearon someofthe cattle bonesshow thatthey were

probably used to pull ploughs. Spelt

and emmer wheat wereharvestedusing sickles and hazlenuts and

sloes werestill gathered for food.

Objects found in the farms

paint a pictureofeverydaylife. Quernsstones were

used to grind flour for

bread. Some pots wereused forstorage, others

for cooking. Clay loom

weightsshow cloth waswoven. Stone whetstones

wereused tosharpen thebladesofiron tools.


The First FarmsThe First Farms

Top: Charred spelt wheat

Main: Examining snail shell sample

Main: Reconstruction showing loomweights and quernsoneRight: Whetstone


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By the Roman Road

At first little changed after the

Roman invasion of AD 43. Somevillas were built in the Bourn valleybut at Cambourne some ofthe old

farms continued, and the houses

were still round.

Two new Roman roads ran nearby.

The A428 and the A1193, which wasErmine Street, an important highway.

Gradually Roman fashions were

adopted. Metal brooches fastenednew styles of dress. Rectangularbuildings were built, their timber

frames rested on the ground surface

leaving few traces.

Cattle became the most common

farm animal. Some new crops suchas beans and peas were introduced.

Some ofthe quern stones were

imported from Germany.

Occasionally valuable objects were

buried, maybe as thanks to the gods.

Glassjars and pewter plates give a

rare glimpse ofobjects rarely thrownaway as rubbish.

After the Romans

There are few traces

ofthe Anglo-Saxons.More emphasis onkeeping cattle may have

led to more farms being

built in the valleys andthe higher land at

Cambourne was not

used for growing crops.Today 's villages seem

likely to have grown

up on the site ofAnglo-Saxon farms.

In the 12-13th centuries the land

at Cambourne was cultivated again.Soil was mounded up into long

ridges, these deep seed beds create

fields with distinctive ridges andfurrows. When wool production

became important these fields were

used for sheep grazing and theywere not ploughed again until the

20th century, which slowly flattened

the ridge and f urrow.

Today 's new settlement at

Cambourne represents the latest

step in an ever changing history ofthe way the land has been used.

The Roman RoadsThe Roman Roads


Inset: Roman bow broochMain: Roman glass jar

Right: Saxon girdle hanger (belt pendant)Below: Saxon cobbled causeway with cattle burial in foreground


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Pewterplates

Jar andglass

vessels

Drovewa

y

Building

Field

Building

Pond/Waterhole

Drov

ew

ay

Roundhouses

Roundhouse

Roundhouses

Roundhouse

rov

D

eway

Drove

way

Enclosure/Field

Settlements at Lower Cambourne

Late IronAge/EarlyRoman Late Roman


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Moat

Roundhouse

Roundhouse

Lower Cambournesettlements

Settlements

Settlement

Jeavons Laneburials

Settlement

Settlement

Girdle hanger

Holloway

Hearthandgullies

Enclosures

Boundary

ditches

Ridge

and f urrow

Ridge

and f urrow

Ridgeand f urrow

Droveway

and enclosures

Droveways

and settlement

Droveway

and enclosure

Field boundaries

and waterhole Fie ld

boundaries

Waterhole

A1198Roman

Ermine Street

Prehistoric

trackway

Prehistoric

trackway

Bronze Age (2400 - 700BC)

Iron Age (700BC - AD43)

Roman (AD43 - 410)

Saxon (410 - 1066)

Medieval (1066 - 1500)

A428

Roman Road

Flint

Flint

Flint

Pottery

Coin hoard

Female

Male

Male

Hobnails

Ring

Ring

Nail

Jeavons Lane Romanburials

Roman: brooch, iron plough, pins, tweezers and pewter plates


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Wessex Archaeology

Booknowpublished

Face from a Roman flagon or jar

archaeology at cambourne

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