90 Archaeology 



minted their coinage at Verulani and. Colchester during the sixty years 

 prior to the Roman Conquest. But the northern part of the County, and 

 a fringe to the east of the Devil's Ditch, formed part of the tribal area of 

 the Iceni, hoards of whose coins are known from March and Wimbhngton. 



ROMANO-BRITISH TIMES' 



In Roman, as in prehistoric times, the human settlement of Cambridge- 

 shire was dominated by its physical features and its superficial geology. 

 With the exception of the silt-land farms, the distribution of Romano- 

 British population was not fundamentally different from what it had been 

 in the Early Iron Age, and it is clear, despite the existence of some finds 

 on the Boulder Clay in the south-west of the County, that no serious 

 attack was made on the considerable areas of scrub which must have 

 covered much of the district (see Fig. 20). 



One of the dominating features of life in all the Roman provinces was 

 the presence of a developed road system and, in greater or lesser measure, 

 of organised town life. The dominant feature of the Roman road system 

 in this district is the Ermine Street, entering the County at Royston, 

 passing out of it towards Huntingdon at Papworth Everard, and taking 

 its name from the Cambridgeshire hundred of Armingford. 



Secondary roads converged on Cambridge. From the south-east, came 

 the Via Deuana from Colchester,' which is probably the earliest Roman 

 road in the region. Entering Cambridge from the south-west, was the 

 Akeman Street which branched from Ermine Street, north of the Cam 

 crossing, to continue its course north-east to Ely, and possibly to Littleport. 

 There was also a local road from Braughing, through Great Chesterford, 

 to join the Icknield Way at or near Worstead Lodge on the line of the 

 so-called Via Devana. In the west of the County there was also the 

 secondary road from Sandy to Godmanchester which now forms the 

 County boundary for a short way. Last comes the Icknield Way, which 

 must have continued in use in Roman times, though there is no evidence 

 that it was metalled or otherwise regulated by Roman standards. 



During earlier times, the clay areas of the upland had been almost 

 without population, which seems to have been concentrated partly along 

 the chalk belt and partly in the valley of the Cam. It might be supposed 

 that the Roman road system, cutting through these clay areas both in the 



' By C. W. Phillips, M.A. 



^ According to Fox, this originally may have missed Cambridge to join the Ermine 

 Street at or near Caxton, but was later re-aligned to pass through the town and lead 

 north-west to Godmanchester. This view, however, seems less likely now than in 

 1923. 



