PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY OK 

 CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 



By W. L. H. DUCKWORTH, M.A., Fellow of Jesus College, 

 University Lecturer in Physical Anthropology. 



WHILE the prehistoric antiquities of Cambridgeshire are 

 far from scanty in amount, yet it must he admitted that their 

 character does not lead one to infer that the district was ever 

 the centre of great activity or the scene of events of funda- 

 mental importance in determining the future history of our 

 land. (The present account will not consider the history of 

 the monastery of Ely, nor the events which render it so 

 conspicuous from the historical standpoint, especially in the 

 eleventh century.) 



If one studies the nature of the locality, it becomes evident 

 why prehistoric Cambridgeshire should present this particu- 

 lar character; for a county comprising so much fenland as 

 that of Cambridge did until the seventeenth century, would 

 naturally be little more than a refuge for those who by stress 

 of circumstance were unable to subsist on the richer lands by 

 which it was surrounded. 



The creation of the county of Cambridgeshire is ascribed, 

 though with small show of evidence, to Edward the elder 

 son of Alfred the Great and to his sister. To quote a recent 

 historian 1 of the county, Cambridgeshire is "a long strip of 

 territory bounded on the east by the ancient East Anglian 



1 Rev. E. Conybcare, M.A., History o 



