Stonea Camp, Wimblington: An Iron Age Fort in the Fens

Stonea Camp is a multi-vallate Iron Age Fort whose outermost defences enclose 24 acres. It is situated on the very edge of a fen island, at 2.0m OD. A complex pattern of earthworks representing defensive banks and ditches were mostly levelled 30 years ago, and the present program of work has allowed a limited, but informed, reinstatement to be made. Excavations and survey work have shown that previously unknown additional ditches existed, that surprisingly well preserved organic-rich ditch deposits survive which include worked wood and human bone (carbon-dated to 1st century BC), and that positioning of the defences clearly followed the micro-topograghy of the area,taking full advantages of natural contours and other features. In concept and scale Stonea Camp is similar to the hill forts of southern and western England, whilst unparalleled in Cambridgeshire and largely unlike any forts in the surrounding region. However there is little evidence to suggest much occupation of the site, and instead when viewed in the light of the greater landscape Stonea Camp should be seen as focal point for the surrounding Iron Age communities, evidence of whose settlement can be found elsewhere in the locality.