Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd (PCA) has just finished a five week excavation on the new Welch’s depot site at Moorfield Road, Duxford.
The most significant discoveries were six pottery kilns dating to the first few decades after the Roman conquest of southern Britain in AD 43. Pottery finds show that the vessels being manufactured here were ‘table wares’ made in the Continental style, including flagons and jars. The local Iron Age population of South Cambridgeshire, which had previously been part of the territory of an Iron Age tribe called the Catuvellauni, appear to have already been adopting some aspects of a ‘Roman’ lifestyle, including wine consumption and greater emphasis on the presentation of food and drink. The kilns are a rare find: not only are they well-preserved, there are also several different designs of kiln present. It is not yet clear whether these differences in construction indicate differences in date, with the kiln technology developing over time, or whether different kiln designs were related to the kinds of vessels being fired. The kilns may have been constructed and used by itinerant potters who had learned their trade in Roman Gaul (modern France) rather than local people.
The kilns, and the other archaeological features on the site, can be closely dated based on the large quantities of associated pottery and two coins – one late Iron Age coin minted by Cunobelin, a chieftain of the Catuvellauni, in around AD 40, and one from the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, whose generals crushed the Boudiccan revolt in AD 61. In addition to the kilns, the site contained some large boundary and enclosure ditches which would have been used by the late Iron Age and early Roman inhabitants of the area to divide-up and drain their farmland. Several of the largest ditches enclose areas of land beside the stream which flows along the southern edge of the site. These probably demarcated areas of water meadow used for grazing livestock.
From this and other archaeological fieldwork, we now know a considerable amount about the late Iron Age and Roman history of the area, and about the lives of its inhabitants. Although there were no buildings or other evidence of actual occupation on the site itself, we can tell from finds of animal bone and other food waste that people were living close by. Previous excavations to the south-east and west of the Moorfield Road site have found small Romano-British settlements or farmsteads, while excavations several years ago in the centre of Duxford found an important Iron Age site with evidence for a shrine, along with human and animal burials and other ‘unusual’ deposits. Often, the burials and other selected objects were deliberately placed in pits which had previously been used to store grain, possibly representing offerings to the gods in return for protecting crops. The Moorfield Road site was probably used by the same people, and, for the most part, indicates the more practical aspects of their everyday lives – their agriculture and industry. However, a large pit in one corner of the excavation area contained part of a decapitated human skull and demonstrates that there may also have been a ritual element to the early Roman activity on the site.
Following completion of the fieldwork, the finds from the site are now being cleaned in preparation for analysis by specialists. The finds reports and the site records will then be used to reconstruct the ‘story’ of the site: how it developed over time and what we can tell about the pottery production and other activities being carried out there. The resulting report will then be published.
PCA is grateful to Welch’s Group Holdings Limited and Wrenbridge (Moorfield Road) Ltd for their kind assistance during the project so far. The site is of major significance for our understanding of the impact of the Roman conquest in East Anglia, and for our understanding of the early Romano-British pottery industry. Without Welch’s generous funding, this important research would not have been possible.