CHAPTER SIX 



THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF 

 CAMBRIDGESHIRE 



Edited by J. G. D. Clark, m.a., ph.d. 



(With contributions by J. G. D. Clark, T. C. Lethbridge, and C. W. Phillips) 



CAMBRIDGESHIRE IS FAMOUS AMONG ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOR 

 the distribution studies of Sir Cyril Fox. His book, The Archaeology 

 of the Cambridge Region, has had a widespread influence, and it 

 covers the extensive material housed in the University Museum of 

 Archaeology and Ethnology, up to the time of its publication in 1923. 



Since 1923, the most important w^ork on the upland has been the 

 dyke and cemetery excavations carried out by the Cambridge Anti- 

 quarian Society, which have served to place Cambridgeshire in the fore- 

 front of Anglo-Saxon studies. In the Fenland, the excavations sponsored 

 by the Fenland Research Committee, with the assistance of the Percy 

 Sladen Memorial Fund, have thrown a flood of light on the relation of 

 successive phases of human settlement to the geographical evolution of 

 the Fenland basin. A fuller surv.ey of the prehistoric archaeology of 

 the County, complete with references, will be found in the forthcoming 

 Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire.^ 



The close connection between human settlement and land movement is 

 brought out by Figs. 18-21. The most striking feature of these is the density 

 of settlement in the southern fens during the Bronze Age, and the sparse- 

 ness of settlement during the Early Iron Age. This change is certainly to be 

 connected with the post-glacial subsidence of the area. In Romano-British 

 times, the distribution of settlement was similar in broad outline to what it 

 had been during the Early Iron Age, with the important exception that 

 the silt fens in the north of the County and in south-eastern Lincolnshire 

 were then intensively cultivated (see Fig. 47). Tliis may have been due to 

 a minor phase of re-elevation, but it may have been facilitated by the 

 superior technical abihty of the Romans. Finally, in Anglo-Saxon times 

 the silt fens ceased to be cultivated. This change was due partly, perhaps, 

 to the breakdown of drainage or defensive works, but also to a further 

 sUght subsidence. The emptiness of the peat fens at the close of this 

 period is emphasised by the map of Domesday villages (Fig. 22). 



' I am indebted to the Editor (Mr L. F. Salzman) for permission to use this material 

 in the preparation of this chapter. 



