̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - excavation

Inside Britain’s biggest Iron Age fortress

ns480 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:03:25 +0000

Stretching across a vast area measuring more than 80 hectares, Ham Hill dominates the landscape a few miles west of Yeovil. It is by far and away the largest hill-fort in the country, dwarfing better-known sites from the same period such as Maiden Castle, in Dorset, or Danebury in Hampshire.

Its sheer scale, however, also presents an historical puzzle. No Iron Age society could possibly have mustered enough people to defend such a huge site. Yet while it is therefore unlikely that Ham Hill functioned as a serviceable fort, nobody has to date been able to explain what it was used for.

Now a plan to expand a local quarry that harvests the site for its distinctive "hamstone", used in listed buildings around the south of England, has given archaeologists the chance to find out more. ̽��ֱ��researchers, a joint team from the Universities of Cambridge and Cardiff, will spend three seasons digging a hectare of Ham Hill's interior to try to understand more about its layout and use. This Saturday (September 3rd), they will also be holding an open day at the hill-fort, giving members of the public a chance to come and find out about what they have discovered so far.

"It's a bit of an enigma," Niall Sharples, from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff ̽��ֱ��, said. "Ham Hill is so big that no archaeologist has ever really been able to get a handle on it. As a result there has never been a thorough campaign of excavations and nobody knows how the settlement was organised inside."

"People think of these places as defensive structures, but it is inconceivable that such a place could have been defended. Thousands of people would have been required; militarily it would have been a nightmare. Clearly it was a special place for people in the Iron Age - but when did it become special, why, and how long did it stay that way?"

Researchers believe that the site may have functioned as a monument and was somehow meant to create a sense of community, collective identity, or prestige. Establishing this remains difficult, however, while so little is known about Ham Hill in more general terms. Although tentative excavations were carried out in the early 20th century, researchers are still unclear about fundamental issues, including when it was built. One of the key aims of the current excavation will be to try to pin down the rough date of the so-called hill-fort's construction.

This may prove easier said than done. Stone axe and arrow-heads, as well as an old field system, attest to some sort of use in the Neolithic period, and Bronze Age finds which would normally be found in hoards or burials have also been unearthed. As an Iron Age structure, Ham Hill may have been occupied during the first century BCE, before being taken over by the Romans some 200 years later.

It was the Romans who also started to quarry the site's distinctive, honey-coloured limestone. Initially this was used to make sarcophagi (Roman coffins), but later it was used for monuments and medieval houses which can still be found in parts of the south-west and along the south coast. Quarrying continued almost uninterrupted until the present day and the stone is still needed, not least for what are now historically valuable listed buildings. As a result, permission has been given for the quarry to expand, enabling the archaeological survey to take place.

̽��ֱ��current excavation has already thrown up a number of finds. ̽��ֱ��initial dig uncovered human remains - one full skeleton and the partial remnants of perhaps two others - as well as the skeleton of a dog. All are still being studied and dated. ̽��ֱ��team also found more signs of domestic life - the remains of a house, pottery, iron sickles, quern stones, bill hooks and other objects dating back to before the Roman invasion.

At the moment archaeologists are focusing on a rectangular enclosure which was surrounded by a ditch, measuring about 100m by 60m. Several such paddocks appear to have existed, as well as at least one main thoroughfare and a scattering of roundhouses and grain storage pits. It is still unclear what the rectangular spaces were meant for. "Enclosures are not normally found inside hill forts of the Iron Age and it may be that this has a special place in its layout," Sharples said.

Work will continue until September 2013, by which time the team will also have examined some of the fort's massive ramparts and have a clearer map of its interior. A study of earlier finds from Ham Hill, many of which are now exhibited in Taunton Castle Museum, will also be carried out with a view to building up a picture of what life was like there more than 2,000 years ago.

"This is the first time we have been able to address Ham Hill's staggering size," Christopher Evans, from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, added. "We don't know if the site's development was prompted by trade, defence or communal identity needs. Equally, should we be thinking of it as a great, centralised settlement place - almost proto-urban in its layout and community size? These are big issues to address and it is rare to have the time and resources to tackle them on the scale they deserve."

̽��ֱ��open day at Ham Hill will run from 11am to 4pm on Saturday, 3 September. Site tours will also be held every Sunday to Thursday at 2.30pm.

A major excavation at Britain’s biggest Iron Age hill-fort has begun in Somerset, in the hope that it will at last enable historians to explain the meaning and purpose of the enigmatic site.

We don't know if the site's development was prompted by trade, defence or communal identity needs.

Christopher Evans

Ham Hill Archaeology.

Digging at Ham Hill.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Revolutionising the understanding of the early social fabric of Cambridge

bjb42 — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��focus of this lavishly illustrated book is the 3 hectare excavation site in the grounds of Addenbrooke's Hospital, which was dug over a six month period in 2002-2003. ̽��ֱ��occupation of the site ranged from the later Bronze Age to the Middle Saxon Times and finds included a cemetery and a pottery kiln complex.

̽��ֱ��book is entitled Borderlands: the Archaeology of the Addenbrooke's Environs, South Cambridge, with 'Borderlands' relating to the sites situation at the northern limits of the Late Iron Age, Gaulish-influence 'Aylesford-Swarling' zone.

One of the key findings of the researches is that the density of population may have been much higher than previously thought, with settlements lying around 300-500 meters apart. ̽��ֱ��book argues that acknowledging these densities should revolutionise the understanding of the early social fabric of the land.

" ̽��ֱ��evidence from the huge-scale trench-survey projects that the Unit has undertaken on both the adjacent Addenbrooke's / Clay Farm Lands and other such projects in South-Central Cambridgeshire indicate that the later prehistoric / Roman landscapes were much more densely settled than previously thought," says Christopher Evans, from CAU who put the book together - "They could have probably waved to their neighbours".

̽��ֱ��book also covers themes relating to the social dynamics of South Cambridge and its 'forgotten' landscapes according to Christopher:

"Under the pleasantly green and rolling landscape of the area there are multiple landscapes, and in the past the area has hosted a lot of activity; this is both in terms of the scale of its WWII defences and also the density of its later prehistoric and Roman settlement, which included considerable industrial activity."

̽��ֱ��new book is the first in a series to be published by CAU entitled 'New Archaeologies of the Cambridge Region', this title relates to Cyril Fox's renowned ̽��ֱ��Archaeology of the Cambridge Region published in 1923.

̽��ֱ��book is available through Oxbow Books. ̽��ֱ��next in the series, Hinterlands: the Archaeology of West Cambridge is currently in preparation and will be available late in 2009.

A new book published by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) suggests that population density in the later prehistoric / Roman Cambridge area may have been much higher than previously thought.

Under the pleasantly green and rolling landscape of the area there are multiple landscapes, and in the past the area has hosted a lot of activity; this is both in terms of the scale of its WWII defences and also the density of its later prehistoric and Roman settlement, which included considerable industrial activity.

Christopher Evans

Paulio Geordio from Flickr

Iron AgeD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Dr Carenza Lewis

bjb42 — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��chance discovery of an ichthyosaur vertebra on the East Anglian farm she grew up on set Dr Lewis on the path to becoming an archaeologist at the young age of seven. Her enthusiasm for unearthing archaeological evidence of rural medieval settlements has resulted in a career that combines research within the Department of Archaeology, with media and broadcasting – most notably as part of Channel 4’s award-winning Time Team – and outreach to secondary schools. Conveying the excitement of ‘getting your hands dirty’ has led naturally to her new enterprise – the Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA;www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca). HEFA is a ground-breaking initiative within the Department of Archaeology that is funded by Aimhigher, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the European Social Fund (ESF). From digging square metre test-pits in their back gardens to introducing them to ̽��ֱ�� life, HEFA is all about encouraging young people to get a flavour of academia through their own hunt for history beneath their feet.

And the icing on the cake for Dr Lewis and the schoolchildren is that their hard work and achievements are recognised in research publications – each of the 10–30 test-pits that have been dug in each of 20 villages across six counties is contributing to a ‘scatter-effect’ analysis of medieval occupation that is overturning previous assumptions. For Dr Lewis, outreach and research have become symbiotically linked.

What would others be surprised to learn about you?

Most of the people I meet through work are usually quite surprised to discover that I juggle my career with three children, who span quite an age range: 5, 11 and 15! Also that I’ve had a huge suite of medical problems – I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 33, had a double mastectomy and then three years later I was told it was a mistake. It was a very difficult time. So on the outside I probably look very capable, with a career that looks like it’s been a fantastically smooth progression, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

Who or what inspires you?

What I find inspiring is that sudden moment when you discover that something really has potential. When you have an idea and you realise: ‘I don’t think anyone has really thought like this before.’ It’s like when you see through a crack in the door and there’s a whole world out there, when things suddenly come together and you think: ‘Yes, this will work.’ Increasingly, working as I do with young people, my inspiration also comes from the enjoyment and excitement that they get out of the time they spend with us.

Have you ever had a Eureka moment?

In a way, my Eureka moment came with the idea for the Academy, combining aspiration-raising work with young people with original research on villages, both of which need to be done on a large scale. I realised that we could give children the vital enthusiasm, confidence AND skills they need to succeed in fulfilling their academic potential by getting them involved in independent new archaeological research, where their contribution is as valuable to us as it is to them. By digging and analysing their own archaeological test-pit, they’re creating one part of a huge jigsaw – the more pieces we have, the clearer and more accurate is the picture. We’ve got all these young people who need to do something really challenging, but who will also really value developing their abilities, interest and confidence. Uncovering, recording and interpreting new archaeological discoveries can do this.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

I always say to the young people we work with that it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that makes the difference to what you can achieve, and I think that’s so true – just like with university admissions, it’s not what someone knows that’s crucial, but what they’re capable of learning. Another thing I learned very quickly from doing television is not to be too worried about being wrong, so long as your reasoning is right, otherwise it can be a huge obstacle to ever attempting anything. Ultimately you just have to get on with it and take a little bit of a risk.

If you could wake up tomorrow with a new skill, what would it be?

̽��ֱ��ability to create an extra number of hours in the day and to have the energy to use them to do all the things I want to!

What motivates you to go to work each day?

̽��ֱ��excitement of novelty and new discoveries; the fact that there’s always something new to do. I just really love what I do – every day is different, the people and challenges are different and you don’t know what’s going to come next. It’s also great seeing the way the work we do affects the kids. That’s REALLY worth getting out of bed for.

What will the future look like in 2050?

As an archaeologist I have a particular time-deep view of this sort of thing. Society today is very unusual when you look at it in terms of past history, particularly the unparalleled rate at which we consume and our awareness of each other’s lives – locally, nationally and worldwide – through the media. I think it’s creating unprecedented stresses and potential for conflict, and I just hope the generation that is growing up today will be able to find solutions to these problems.

A passion for communicating the thrill of the dig and for uncovering evidence of lives long gone is what inspires archaeologist Dr Carenza Lewis. Her latest endeavour is to raise educational aspirations among schoolchildren through involvement in excavation - a venture that is unearthing new information on rural medieval settlements.

By digging and analysing their own archaeological test-pit, they’re creating one part of a huge jigsaw – the more pieces we have, the clearer and more accurate is the picture.

Dr Carenza Lewis

Eastern Daily Press

Dr Carenza Lewis

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Young archaeologists dig up a mystery

tdk25 — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Watch how a group of teenagers taking part in a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� archaeological dig unexpectedly unearthed the mysterious remains of a woman who could be more than 1,000 years old.

Pupils from Sir John Leman High School in Beccles and Kirkley Community High School in Lowestoft uncovered the ancient skull during a Higher Education Field Academy dig in the village of Chediston, near Halesworth. ̽��ֱ��dig was organised by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� archaeologist Carenza Lewis - familiar to television viewers from Channel 4's Time Team.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� experts believe that the body, the rest of which is likely to lie east beyond the excavated area, belonged to an adult woman who lived in the village either in medieval or Anglo-Saxon times. But the site of the burial is mystifying, leading to questions about who she actually was.

In particular, the woman was buried outside the churchyard - although tantalisingly close to it. ̽��ֱ��burial site is just a stone's throw from the graveyard of St Mary's Church (itself an ancient site) and there have been no other human remains found so far in the immediate area.

"At the moment we don't know why this woman was buried outside the graveyard. She may have committed some awful crime, or been thought not to be Christian," Carenza said.

From the medieval period onwards it was firmly believed that burial in unconsecrated ground condemned the soul to limbo, with no chance of ever going to heaven. People who could not be buried on consecrated ground included suicides, criminals, un-baptised babies and non-Christians, although the Church usually tried to apply such rules as charitably as possible, denying as few people as possible the awful fate of perpetual limbo.

̽��ֱ��woman was, however, buried oriented east to west, the standard form of Christian burial, suggesting that those who buried her must have considered her to be a Christian. With this in mind, the other possibility experts are considering is that the burial of this woman actually occurred longer ago, before the graveyard occupied its present position.

" ̽��ֱ��skull was found in an area of the village that in the past has turned up pottery and other remains that are late Anglo-Saxon in date, including a timber building," Carenza added. "It may be that a church much older than the present building stood near here before the Norman Conquest, and that the body we found was buried in its graveyard, which was in a different place to the one we know today. Discoveries of this sort are very rare, and so this is very important. If this theory is correct, it is likely there will be other bodies buried nearby."

̽��ֱ��dig in Chediston was part of an ongoing series of Higher Education Field Academies run by Access Cambridge Archaeology. ̽��ֱ��scheme, based at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, aims to bring together school pupils, rural residents, local history societies and the ̽��ֱ�� in an ongoing archaeological investigation into the development of villages and hamlets across the country.

Young people have the chance to run their own mini-excavations over two days and the hope is that this will give them the chance to develop skills, confidence and enthusiasm for attending university in the future. Previous Field Academies have generated a 60% increase in numbers wanting to go on to higher education.

At the same time, the project is revealing important new information about the development of different communities dotted around the English countryside and their past.

"Archaeology is quite a unique subject in that, with the right expert support, you can get involved and actually make important new discoveries without any previous experience," Carenza, who directs Access Cambridge Archaeology, added.

"This kind of find is part of the beauty of these field academies. We don't know what's out there and what the results are going to be - we send these children to live excavation sites, and the evidence they uncover can be quite spectacular."

For further information about the field academies and Access Cambridge Archaeology as a whole, visit the website linked to the right of this page.

Watch how a group of teenagers taking part in a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� archaeological dig unexpectedly unearthed the mysterious remains of a woman who could be more than 1,000 years old.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Cambridge scholar makes rare 30,000-year-old find.

tdk25 — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Archaeologists have unearthed a pair of bone fragments dating back almost 30,000 years and featuring minute designs carved by some of our earliest European ancestors.

̽��ֱ��unusual find was made by a Cambridge scholar, Becky Farbstein, who has been working at Predmosti in north Moravia with an excavation team comprising archaeologists from both the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Czech Republic.

̽��ֱ��thumbnail-sized bone fragments are engraved with parallel lines and match similar artefacts uncovered in the same area almost 100 years ago. They were carved by hunter-gatherers as they travelled north following the mammoth and reindeer 25-30,000 years ago.

Experts are, however, still uncertain as to what significance the markings had and are trying to build up a collection to interpret their meaning. So far such finds have been few and far between.

"There has not been much in the way of decorated objects found at this site for a very long time," Miss Farbstein said. "They are very similar in design to other decorations that were found a century ago. ̽��ֱ��designs are pretty enigmatic and understanding their meaning is still a problem. But for that reason any addition to the amount of art we have is valuable as it will enable us to piece that meaning together."

Miss Farbstein spotted the fragments while sorting through a mixture of solid objects left over from a filtration process which the team are using to identify plant remains. Fortunately, she recently began studying this important collection of early decorated forms and recognised their significance.

̽��ֱ��joint team, from the Institute of Archaeology at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, is led by Professors Jiri Svoboda and Martin Jones. Predmosti, on the outskirts of the north Moravian town of Prerov, sits at a gap in the central European mountains, the start of a corridor through which these early hunters gradually migrated on to the North European Plain. Finds from the site form the focus of an open-air museum sponsored by the City of Prerov to celebrate and present to visitors their world-famous pre-history.

Archaeologists have unearthed a pair of bone fragments dating back almost 30,000 years and featuring minute designs carved by some of our earliest European ancestors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes