EAA 186: A Cam Valley Landscape: Bronze Age to Romano-British Settlement at Clay Farm, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire

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Large-scale excavations at Clay Farm, Trumpington – on the southern fringes of Cambridge – revealed archaeological remains spanning the Neolithic and Roman periods. The key discovery was a series of Middle Bronze Age field systems, enclosures, and settlements in a part of the region where such activity had not previously been recorded. The earliest land divisions took the form of strip fields, traces of which survived across the entire site. An intricate system of enclosures and field boundaries developed above these early fields, using them as a reference point. In addition, a Bronze Age barrow became the focus of a relatively substantial cremation cemetery. Two discrete areas of settlement were established, with associated middens which produced significant finds assemblages of both regional and national importance. Good preservation of Middle Bronze Age plant macrofossils, pollen and insects is rare within similar landscapes in Southern Britain, meaning that the remains from Clay Farm are of considerable significance in terms of the rich evidence they provide for early hedged boundaries and grazing livestock .

Of note is the first securely dated example of Middle Bronze Age spelt wheat in East Anglia. There was little trace of activity during the Late Bronze Age, although an extensive area of Early Iron Age settlement was created within part of the Middle Bronze Age field system. Once again, large quantities of pottery, animal bone and other finds were recovered. The focus of Middle Iron Age activity lay on higher ground and consisted of a series of curvilinear ditches forming the eastern side of an enclosed settlement which continued to develop into the Late Iron Age. Associated with one of the Early Roman settlements were two high-status cremation burials. In one instance, the cremated bone had been placed within a leather-lined wooden box and was accompanied by eleven ceramic vessels and a glass unguent bottle, together with various other items. In the following decades, these burials were enclosed by a ditch and surrounded by other features interpreted as elements of a possible funerary garden. The principal Late Roman feature was a double ditched sub-circular enclosure or monument: while it showed no evidence of domestic or agricultural use, the inner ditch contained disarticulated or partially articulated human skeletal remains, along with five bracelets, large iron nails, and butchered animal bones. After the Roman period, the site was used for agriculture until relatively recently. During World War II, a series of ring ditches was constructed, creating banked enclosures around searchlights and associated stores. During the 1950s and 60s, the site served as the Cambridgeshire Agricultural Showground.

Full reference:

Phillips, T. and Mortimer, R., 2026, A Cam Valley Landscape: Bronze Age to Romano-British Settlement at Clay Farm, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, East Anglian Archaeology 186

A4, 400pp

ISBN 978 1 9075881 8 1