Babraham Research Campus, Proposed Buildings B702 and B703. An Archaeological Trench Evaluation & Excavation.

Between 23rd May and 14th June 2011 the Cambridge Archaeological Unit carried out an archaeological evaluation (69m of trenching) followed by an open area excavation (1000 sq m) at the Babraham Research Campus prior to the construction of new buildings (B702 and B703) to be located some 200m to the north of the river and to the east of the Hall. At the north end a short stretch (8.5m) of a cambered though partly truncated flint-metalled 4.5m-wide Roman road was uncovered with one surviving roadside ditch to the south-east. The middle 15m-long section of this ENE-WSW oriented road seems to have been removed by quarrying, the flint gravel being dug in order to metal the surface an adjacent parallel Post-medieval (17th-century?) wagon road which crosses the area from north-east to south-west heading for a former ford across the river.An E-W Roman mid 1st-2nd century AD ditch thought perhaps to be the major floodplain boundary ditch of the Roman settlement, abuts this roadside ditch on its western side, then is off-set northwards by about 7m on its eastern side. Eastwards from here this cuts another parallel ditch which in this northern part of the site takes the form of a sinuous broken gully. From what could have been the separated southern section came mid-late 1st century AD pottery which included a Samian cup