82 Archaeology 



rupted, subsidence, which was not fully accomplished until the Early Iron 

 Age. The initial stage in this process was marked by the submergence of 

 the North Sea "moorlog", from which the prong of a Maglemosian fish 

 spear has been obtained, some 35 miles from the Norfolk coast. Part of a 

 very similar specimen was found many years ago in the Royston district, 

 probably from a low-lying site in the Cam Valley. Microhthic industries 

 of Tardenoisian aspect have been found at Fen Ditton, at Chippenliam, 

 and on several sandy hillocks in the Ely fens. Excavations on the flanks 

 of one of these hillocks at Peacock's Farm, near Shippea Hill station, re- 

 vealed evolved Tardenoisian flints stratified in the lowermost peat bed 

 underlying the fen clay and at a depth of some 17 ft. below mean sea-level 

 (Newlyn) . These flints were of an industry previously well known from 

 the sand dunes between Wangford and Lakenheath, Suffolk. It is thus 

 established that Cambridgeshire, by the close of Mesolithic times, was 

 still at least 30 ft. higher in relation to the sea than it is to-day. Pollen 

 analysis shows that the Late Tardenoisian industry immediately antedates 

 the change-over from pine to alder dominated woods, which marks the 

 Boreal-Atlantic transition in this area.' 



THE NEOLITHIC AGE 



If stray finds of flint implements be excepted (and it is no longer possible 

 in this country to assign any single type exclusively to tliis phase), there 

 is very little material evidence for a Neolithic settlement of Cambridge- 

 shire. The pottery obtained from the Peacock's Farm excavations, over- 

 lying the Late Tardenoisian level, shows, however, that the area was 

 affected by the Neolithic "A" (Windmill Hill) culture, while the level 

 at which it was found {minus 15 ft. o.D.) indicates that the subsidence was 

 still at this period far from complete. It is likely that the Neohthic "A" 

 culture spread to the Essex coast and the fen basin by direct overseas 

 movements; but the long barrow at Therfield Heath, Royston, on the 

 line of the Icknield Way, suggests that influences did move up the chalk 

 belt from Wessex, although the absence (with one possible exception in 

 Norfolk) of long barrows from the rest of East Anglia seems to indicate 

 that such influences were unimportant. 



No pots decorated in the "A2" style have yet been found in the 

 County, but the recent discovery of a complete bowl in Mildenhall Fen, 

 only a short distance over the Suffolk border, suggests that such finds are 

 not unlikely in the future. 



Nor, despite its proximity to the type site (Peterborough), can Cam- 

 bridgeshire yet show any certain traces of the Neolithic "B" culture. 



' See p. 18 above. 



