The Old Divinity School, Cambridge: An Archaeological Excavation.

The earliest activity at this site consisted of Roman period gravel quarrying. Subsequently the area was re-occupied around the mid 10th century, with evidence for five intensively occupied urban-style tenement properties fronting onto St. John's Street. One 10th-century pit was used to dispose of a body. This pattern was largely swept away over the course of the first half of the 13th century, however, when most of the area was converted into a cemetery for the nearby Hospital of St John the Evangelist. The in situ remains of just over 400 complete or partial individuals were identified, from a likely original 'population' of c. 1000-1500 burials. On the edges of the cemetery there was evidence for adjacent domestic occupation, with a well and some timber-lined pits associated with some form of light industry. The cemetery went out of use when the hospital was converted into St. John's College in 1511. The area then functioned principally as an open garden/yard area with evidence for the sporadic digging of pits and a cask-lined well. From 1562 onwards it was a Pentitionary, a residence for undergraduates not financially supported by their college. It was subdivided and utilised for a range of ancillary college-related functions, including stables and a bakehouse. During the 17th-early 19th centuries there is archaeological evidence that the area became increasingly densely occupied by a series of buildings with stone and later brick footings. In 1877 all of these structures were demolished and the Old Divinity School was constructed