Neolithic to Early Roman Archaeology at Dimmock's Cote, Wicken, Cambridgeshire

Between 1st and 19th September 2008, an open area excavation was carried out by Oxford Archaeology East in advance of the extension of a lime quarry at Dimmock's Cote, Wicken. The excavation located several pits of Early Neolithic date, some containing pottery of Mildenhall type and struck flints including a single piece sickle. A Middle-Later Bronze Age pit, containing pottery of Deverel-Rimbury type, was also excavated. A tightly crouched burial radiocarbon dated to the Late Bronze Age was adjacent to, and slightly on top of, this pit. Another crouch burial, with a complete pottery vessel, was radiocarbon dated to the Later Iron Age. Two undated, unurned cremations were also deposited on the site.
A Late Iron Age and Early Roman field system was recorded along with two small enclosures. Neither of these has an obvious function and it is possible that at least one of them relates in some way to mortuary practices.
This work followed on from several previous phases of excavation in the quarry and taken together these excavations provide a picture of the changing use of the land on a limestone promontory in the Southern Cambridgeshire Fenlands.