Early Digs

The Peterborough region has a long history of archaeology research dating back to the mid 1800s but it wasn’t until 1982, when Dr. Francs Pryor and Dr. Charly French were conducting a dyke survey for English Heritage, that the truly monumental scale of Peterborough’s prehistory was unearthed.

Before 1970

The importance of the area known as the fen edge to the east of Peterborough was first discovered during gravel pit digging in the early 1900s. Throughout the first half of the 20th Century archaeologists established the existence of a Peterborough tradition of pottery, Fengate ware and Bronze Age “Beaker” style potter. In 1968, the Nene Valley Research Committee commissioned the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to carry out surveys ahead of the New Town being built. The resulting publication had the first detailed aerial photographs of the area. These showed clear crop marks indicating field ditches and settlements.

1970s – Evidence of Farming Communities

As Peterborough expanded in the 1960s and 1970s, more development was planned for ‘Fengate’, an area to the east of Peterborough right on the fen edge. Excavations ahead of the development produced startling evidence for early Bronze Age farming communities. Early excavations uncovered Neolithic enclosures, possibly ritual spaces and buildings with a multiple burial, flint and stone tools and beads associated with them. As the Fengate excavations continued, evidence of paired ditches running towards the fen edge became clear. Finds within them dated them to the Bronze Age. These were identified as Droveways for driving animals to summer grazing on the fen edge. Further excavation identified field boundaries with gaps in the corners – entrances to fields. This showed that the fields were probably used for animals rather than crops as it is easier to drive animals through a corner gate. Furthermore, these excavations revealed the houses people lived in – round houses with eaves drip gullies (to drain the rain running off the roof) with a porch facing their fields. Thus, we have our first evidence for livestock farmsteads in Britain.