Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T17:34:13.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iron Age Riverside Pit Alignments at St Ives, Cambridgeshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Joshua Pollard ,
Val Fryer ,
Peter Murphy ,
Maisie Taylor  and
Patricia Wiltshire
Joshua Pollard
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
Val Fryer
Affiliation:
Centre of East Anglian Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
Peter Murphy
Affiliation:
Centre of East Anglian Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
Maisie Taylor
Affiliation:
Inley Drove Farm, New Fen Dyke, Sutton St James, Lincolnshire, PE12 0LX
Patricia Wiltshire
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–4 Gordon Square, London, 1WC1H 0PY
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Excavations at a deeply alluviated site near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, revealed a complex sequence of boundary works of later prehistoric and Roman date running along the edge of a former course of the river Great Ouse. The most significant of these were two successive pit alignments constructed in the early-mid 1st millennium BC. One alignment ran along the very edge of the channel and was waterlogged over much of its length; upon excavation producing a rich assemblage of worked wood, including hedging debris. Broader discussion on the social context of pit alignments as boundary systems is offered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 62 , 1996 , pp. 93 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bamford, H.M. 1985. Briar Hill: excavations 1974–1978. Northampton: Northampton Development Corporation.Google Scholar
Barber, J. 1985. The Pit Alignment at Eskbank Nurseries. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 51, 149–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boast, R. 1991. Archaeological Investigations at Meadow Lane Quarry, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire. Unpublished report, Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Google Scholar
Boyd, W.E. 1984. Prehistoric hedges: Roman Iron Age hedges from Bar Hill. Scottish Archaeological Review 3(1), 32–4.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., Entwistle, R., & Raymond, F. 1994. Prehistoric Land Divisions on Salisbury Plain: the work of the Wessex Linear Ditches Project. London: English Heritage Archaeological Report 3.Google Scholar
Chowne, P., Girling, M., & Greig, J. 1986. Excavations of an Iron Age defended enclosure at Tattershall Thorpe, Lincolnshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52, 159–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W. 1991. Iron Age Communities in Britain. 3rd edition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Evans, C. 1992. Commanding gestures in lowlands: The investigation of two Iron Age Ringworks. Fenland Research 7, 16–26.Google Scholar
Evans, C. 1993. The Fengate Depot Site. Fenland Research 8, 2–9.Google Scholar
Evans, C. Forthcoming. Hydraulic Communities: Iron Age enclosure in the East Anglia Fenlands. In Gwilt, A. & Haselgrove, C. (eds), Re-constructing the Iron Age. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Evans, C, & Serjeantson, D. 1988. The backwater economy of a fen-edge community in the Iron Age: the Upper Delphs, Haddenham. Antiquity 62, 360–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearn, K. 1993. Excavation of two pits of an alignment at Moor Lane, Long Bennington, Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire History & Archaeology 28, 5–8.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A. 1984. The deposition of La Tene metalwork in watery contexts in Southern England. In Cunliffe, B.W. & Miles, D. (eds), Aspects of the Iron Age in Central Southern Britain, 178–90. Oxford: University Committee for Archaeology.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. 1983. The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor. Part 2: North and East Dartmoor. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49, 195–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, S., Bradley, R., Hawkes, J., & Fisher, P. 1984. Flintworking in the Metal Age. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 3, 157–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, C.A.I., Gurney, D.A., Pryor, F.M.M., & Simpson, W.G. 1993. A double pit-alignment and other features at Field OS 29, Tallington, Lincolnshire. In Simpson, et al, 1993, 29–68.Google Scholar
French, C.A.I., Macklin, M.G., & Passmore, D.G. 1992. Archaeology and palaeochannels in the Lower Welland and Nene Valleys: alluvial archaeology at the fen-edge, eastern England. In Needham, S. & Macklin, M.G. (eds), Alluvial Archaeology in Britain, 169–76. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph 27.Google Scholar
French, C.A.I., & Wait, G. 1988. An Archaeological Survey of the Cambridgeshire River Gravels. Cambridge: Cambridgeshire County Council.Google Scholar
Gardiner, J. 1993. The flint asemblage. In Davies, J.A., Excavation of an Iron Age pit group at London Road, Thetford. Norfolk Archaeology 41, 441–61.Google Scholar
Gdaniec, K. 1995. Archaeological Investigations at Barleycroft Farm 1995: The Plant Lxtension Site. Unpublished report, Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Google Scholar
Green, H.J.M. 1961. Neolithic pottery from the Great Ouse valley. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 54, 17–8.Google Scholar
Gurney, D.A., Neve, J., & Pryor, F.M.M. 1993. Excavations at Plant's Farm, Maxey, Cambridgeshire. In Simpson, et al., 1993, 69–101.Google Scholar
Harding, P. 1992. The flint. In Gingell, C., The Marlborough Downs: A Later Bronze Age Landscape and its Origins, 122–33. Devizes: Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society Monograph 1.Google Scholar
Hill, J.D. 1993. Can we recognise a different European past? A contrastive archaeology of later prehistoric settlement in southern England. Journal of European Archaeology 1, 57–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J.D. 1995a. Ritual and Rubbish in the Iron Age of Wessex: a study on the formation of a specific archaeological record. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 242.Google Scholar
Hill, J.D. 1995b. How should we understand Iron Age societies and hillforts? a contextual study from southern Britain. In Hill, J.D. & Cumberpatch, C.G. (eds), Different Iron Ages: studies on the Iron Age in temperate Europe, 45–66. Oxford: British Archaeological Report S602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hingley, R. 1990a. Boundaries surrounding Iron Age and Romano-British settlements. Scottish Archaeological Review 7, 96–103.Google Scholar
Hingley, R. 1990b. Iron Age ‘Currency Bars’: the archaeological and social context. Archaeological Journal 147, 91–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, D.A. 1974. Two new pit alignments and a hoard of currency bars Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire Archaeology 9, 13–45.Google Scholar
Jackson, D.A. 1978. A Late Bronze-Early Iron Age vessel from a pit alignment at Ringstead, Northants. Northamptonshire Archaeology 13, 168–9.Google Scholar
Knight, D. 1984. Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Settlement in the Nene and Great Ouse Basins. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 130.Google Scholar
Leach, E. 1976. Culture and Communication. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miket, R. 1981. Pit alignments in the Millfield Basin, and the excavation of Ewart 1. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, 137–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., & Richards, C. 1994. Architecture and order: spatial representation and archaeology. In Pearson, M. Parker & Richards, C. (eds), Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space, 38–72. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, C.W. (ed.) 1970. The Fenland in Roman Times. London: Royal Geographical Society.Google Scholar
Powlesland, D. 1986. Excavations at Heslerton, North Yorkshire, 1978–82. Archaeological Journal 143, 53–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryor, F. 1980. Excavations at Fengate, Peterborough, England: The Third Report. Northamptonshire Archaeological Society/Royal Ontario Museum.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1984. Excavations at Fengate, Peterborough, England: The Fourth Report. Northamptonshire Archaeological Society/Royal Ontario Museum.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1993. Pit-alignments in the Welland Valley: a possible explanation. In Simpson, et al., 1993, 141–2.Google Scholar
Pryor, F., French, C, & Taylor, M. 1986. Flag Fen, Peterborough I: discovery, reconnaissance and initial excavation (1982–85). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rackham, O. 1977. Neolithic woodland management in the Somerset Ixvels: Garvin's, Walton Heath and Rowland's Tracks. Somerset Levels Papers 3, 65–71.Google Scholar
RCHM(E). 1981. An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northampton. Volume III. Archaeological Sites in North-West Northamptonshire. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Richmond, I.A. 1959. Roman Britain in 1958. journal of Roman Studies 49, 102–39.Google Scholar
Simpson, W.G., Gurney, D.A., Neve, J., & Pryor, F.M.M. 1993. The Eenland Project, Number 7: Excavations in Peterborough and the Lower Welland Valley 1960–1969. Peterborough: Fenland Archaeological Trust/East Anglian Archaeology 61.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., & Reimer, P.J. 1986. A computer programme for radiocarbon age determination. Radiocarbon 28, 1022–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, R. 1982. Modelling of spatial relations in a boundary-marking ritual of the Iraqw of Tanzania. Man 17, 528–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilley, C. 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Wait, G. 1992. Archaeological Investigations at Fen Drayton Reservoir, Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire. Unpublished report, Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Google Scholar
Williams, P. 1979. Waterlogged wood remains. In Smith, C.A. (ed.), Fisherwick: the reconstruction of an Iron Age landscape, 71–7. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 61.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. R. 1978. Pit alignments: distribution and function. In Bowen, H.C. & Fowler, P.J. (eds) Early Land Allotment, 3–6. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 48.Google Scholar
Wiltshire, P.E.J., Edwards, K.J., & Bond, S. 1994. Microbially-derived metallic sulphide spherules, pollen, and the waterlogging of archaeological sites. In Davis, O.K. (ed.), Aspects of Archaeological Palynology: Methodology and Applications, 206–21. Proceedings of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists: AASP Contributions Series 29.Google Scholar