Roman distribution center, medieval village discovered near Cambridge

LONDON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A Roman trade distribution center, an abandoned medieval village and three prehistoric monuments, are among nationally significant archaeological discoveries uncovered during Britain's biggest road building program near Cambridge, it was revealed Tuesday.

Around 350 hectares have been excavated as part of the upgrade of a main road route in Cambridge, making it one of the biggest and most complex archaeological projects ever undertaken in Britain, said Highways England.

Archaeologists working on Highways England's 2.15 billion U.S. dollars scheme to upgrade the A14 road between Cambridge to Huntingdon, have uncovered a number of sites shining a light on 6,000 years of history.

Some 250 archaeologists led by archaeology experts MOLA Headland Infrastructure have dug more than 40 separate excavation areas, uncovering new information about how the landscape was used over 6,000 years and about the origins of the villages and towns along the A14 in Cambridgeshire today.

Finds so far date from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval periods. The sites uncovered include a Roman trade distribution center. It would have played a pivotal part in the region's supply chain, and was linked to the surrounding farmsteads by trackways as well as the main Roman road between Cambridge and Godmanchester. The discovery of artefacts at the site relating to the Roman army indicates that this trade was controlled centrally.

The archaeologists also found the remains of 12 medieval buildings abandoned in the 12th century. Covering an area of six hectares, the entire layout of a village is discernible, with the earlier remains of up to 40 Anglo Saxon timber buildings and alleys winding between houses, workshops and agricultural buildings.

There is also the remains of what was a massive Anglo-Saxon tribal territorial boundary with huge ditches, an imposing gated entrance and a beacon placed on top of a hill overlooking the region.

Three prehistoric henge monuments, which are likely to have been a place for ceremonial gatherings and perhaps had a territorial function, were also found.

These impressive Neolithic monuments, measuring up to 50 meters in diameter, would have been very important places for Britain's distant prehistoric ancestors. They retained their special significance over the millennia with evidence for later Anglo Saxon buildings at these sites," said a spokesperson for Highways England.

Cambridgeshire County Council's senior archaeologist Kasia Gdaniec, said: "The A14's archaeology program has exposed an astonishing array of remarkable new sites that reveal the previously unknown character of ancient settlement across the western Cambridgeshire clay plain. No previous excavation had taken place in these areas. We now know that extensive, thriving long-lived villages were built during the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon periods."

Dr Steve Sherlock, archaeology lead for the project for Highways England, said: "The archive of finds, samples and original records will be stored so that the data and knowledge is preserved for future generations. We now have the evidence to rewrite both the prehistoric and historic records of the area for the last 6,000 years." Enditem