412 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— C. 



bench marks may occasionally be seen where an unused front door to a 

 cottage is now seen to be 2J ft. above ground level and yet unprovided with 

 any step. 



A line of special levels has been completed quite recently in the vicinity 

 of the famous iron column at Holme Fen with a view to finding out what 

 subsidence has taken place since the year 1885. At that date there were 

 already spot (i.e. ground) heights on a drift in the vicinity a foot or two 

 below mean sea level, a not uncommon thing in the Fens. At the foot of 

 the column the ground level is now found to be 7 ft. below mean sea level. 



Dr. J. G. D. Clark. — Archceological correlation. 



Archaeological-geological correlations have been effected in the Cambridge- 

 shire Fens by sectioning post-glacial deposits formed in close proximity 

 to and contemporaneously with sites inhabited by prehistoric man. By 

 recording accurately in the section the ' scatters ' (bones, flints and sherds) 

 from successive settlements their stratigraphical relationships have been 

 established and their contexts in the natural sequence of events accurately 

 fixed. Correlations effected by this method are considered more reliable 

 than those obtained by means of chance finds of stray objects or hoards, 

 many of which have been inserted from higher levels. By utilising a 

 ' scatter ' of objects of varying weights the factor of sinkage is also brought 

 under control. 



Sections cut on either side of the channel of the extinct course of the 

 Little Ouse on Peacock's ^ and Plantation Farms, Shippea Hill, near Ely, 

 gave three archasological levels in the post-glacial sequence, viz : 



Early Bronze Age in the base of the Upper Peat. — 6 ft. O.D. 



N.B. — Fen clay sterile. 

 Neolithic ' A ' near the top of the Lower Peat. — 15 ft. O.D. 

 Late Mesolithic in a black band at a lower 



depth in the Lower Peat. — 17 ft. O.D. 



The subsidence revealed by the O.D. levels reached its climax during the 

 Early Iron Age, when the Fens were virtually evacuated. This is well 

 illustrated by comparing maps ^ showing the distribution of finds dating 

 from the Bronze and Early Iron Ages respectively : areas densely settled 

 during the former period appear to have been abandoned completely during 

 the latter. 



Mr. C. W. Phillips. — Conditions in Roman times. 



At the opening of the Roman period the Fens were deserted, but by 

 A.D. 100 an extensive agricultural occupation of native type had set in, 

 chiefly on the silt lands. 



It is probable that the area was an Imperial domain. Work at Welney 

 has shown that by the end of the second century sea-floods began, but the 

 wealth and activity of the region continued with little abatement, so far as 

 we know, till late in the fourth century. In Anglo-Saxon times the region 

 was again a wilderness. 



The particular interest of the occupation is its size, intensive character, 

 and the various types of native agriculture displayed. The suggestion is 

 that the population was drawn from more than one part of Britain and that 



* It is hoped to re-open this key section on the occasion of the Cambridge 

 Meeting of the Association. 



^ See the Scientific Survey prepared for the present meeting of the Association. 



