Excavations at Bourn Bridge, Pampisford, Cambridgeshire : Pt 1, Prehistoric Occupation

Following a field evaluation in November 1993, excavations were conducted across the site of a 6ha borrow-pit occupying the lst-2nd terrace of the River Granta1 immediately to the west of the new A11 widening. These revealed evidence for intermitten settlement1 agricultural and ceremonial activity from the Mesolithic to the Saxon period. This, the first part of the report, describes prehistoric activity on the site. The area was transversed by marl filled palaeochannels of Pleistocene date. The earliest indications of human activity were provided by occasional pieces of (late?) Mesolithic flintwork. More sustained occupation took place during the earlier Neolithic, indicated by a lithic scatter, and then in the later Bronze Age. Associated with the latter were a number of pits, many containing burnt flint fills, an atypical ring-ditch, and quantities of flint debitage in a peri-glacial hollow. The 'ring-ditch' comprised a small circular ditched monument (9m in diameter) with radial external pits, post settings within the ditch, and a sunken central area with a post-pit containing the cremated remains of an adult. A second cremation came from a pit within 11m of the monument. Dating is provided by large quantities of crudely worked flint and later Bronze Age ceramics. Few analogies are evident for this monument