A Middle Iron Age Site at Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridgeshire

During March 1998 the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council excavated a 0.45ha area within The Welding Institute's proposed Granata Park development. This work was funded by the TWI Estates and followed three previous campaigns to investigative work which defined the archaeological potential of the development site. The process of systematic investigation highlighted the importance of a small area of land were middle Iron Age settlement remains were known to lie.

Excavation of the 0.45ha area revealed over sixty middle Iron Age pits of which 70% were excavated. Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age activities in the excavation area were also recognised.

Excavations were able to distinguish both the initial purpose of the middle Iron Age pits, which appear to have been for grain storage, and the reason for their abandonment. Rising ground water levels meant that many of the riverside pits became damp and no longer suitable for their original purpose. At least four phases of pit digging and infilling have been identified which include pottery and knives, showing that a series of rites were undertaken to indicate a change in function for this piece of land. Subsequent to these activities the pits were backfilled with midden deposits consisting of hearth fragments, animal bones and pottery which suggest occupation areas were at no great distance from the excavated area. This settlement did not lie within the evaluation area and therefore must have lain to the east. It has either ben quarried away or lies beneath the existing buildings of the Welding Institute.

The association of Iron Age rituals with the pits was not a singular event at this site. A sheep/goat burial in another pit was an example of earlier ritual episodes and it is possible that the re-excavation of pits in antiquity may have removed other events. Excavations also showed that ritual deposition at this site had a long tradition as similar deposit was found which dated to the late Bronze Age.