Prehistoric Activity and Medieval Quarrying at 2 Park Close, Yaxley

Between the 30th July and the 2nd August 2013 Oxford Archaeology East conducted an archaeological excavation on the former hostel site at 2 Park Close, Yaxley, Cambridgeshire (TL 8160 9249). An excavation area measuring 33m by 16m was opened in an area where previous work had identified possible prehistoric activity.
Prehistoric, Roman and medieval artefacts were recovered from the site but the bulk of the activity appeared to have occurred in the medieval period. A sherd of Early Bronze Age pottery and several lithics recovered from a pit indicate prehistoric activity. The presence of postholes in the south-west corner of the site may represent prehistoric settlement was located here, however, with only a small number of artefacts recovered it is not possible to say conclusively.
Roman pottery tended to occur residually in medieval contexts and probably represents a background scatter of Roman material in this area.
In the medieval period the land in the development area was exploited for its sand and gravel resource by strip quarries, located mainly in the western part of the site. These pits had mainly been backfilled and contained few finds. However, one pit contained a large amount of medieval pottery indicating that domestic activity may have been occurring nearby.