4.20.22 Fenland management project

This project succeeded the Fenland Survey {1981-89) and Fenland Evaluation (1989-90) Projects, and constitutes a programme of fieldwork to implement agreed management action resulting from the earlier projects. Fieldwork was carried out between 1991 and 1995, and work on post-excavation analysis is now well advanced. The project is an important element of the major programme of survey and excavation work throughout the lowland wetlands of England supported by EH since the 1970's (including the Somerset Levels Project, the North West Wetlands Survey, and the Humber Wetlands Project). A short geological record, a complex environmental sequence, an extensive recorded history, and intensive archaeological survey have all combined in the Fenland to demonstrate the variety of wetland and dry land conditions, and how they have been exploited through time. Sites and landscape catchments are so well preserved, and well surveyed and dated, that the range and quality of archaeological evidence likely to be revealed here is extremely high compared to other regions. The quality of the evidence, even in desiccated or barely wet areas, is often very high, protective layers of peats and silts, uneroded and unploughed, frequently remain. The significance of Fenland sites lies in its combination of high quality organic and inorganic remains, rich in environmental detail.

The selection process that began with the assessment of over 2,500 sites identified by the Fenland Survey lead to the investigation of 40 sites in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk by the Fenland Management Project. These demonstrated a wide range of group value, diversity, potential, and multi-period complexity and were considered to be of such significance that any severe damage or loss would seriously diminish the total record of past human activity in the Fenland. Long-term physical preservation was not considered feasible for many of the sites and a recording programme ranging from full to selective excavation was carried out (depending on the character and extent of the site). Some of the sites within the group of required further evaluation. The selected sites provided the opportunity of investigating groups of contemporary sites within a defined landscape block in a unified programme of work. Much useful data has been generated, even though the sites were investigated in the context of specific management needs. Methodologies included gridded fieldwalking, geophysical survey, gridded test pits, linear trenching, and open area excavation.

Sixteen sites in Lincolnshire were examined by Heritage Lincolnshire and fieldwork included the excavation of a round barrow at Deeping St Nicholas, which proved to be one of the most complex in Britain, with important data about Bronze Age burial traditions and rites. Late Bronze Age salt-making has been identified on the northern fen edge for the first time, and our understanding of saltmaking sites has advanced dramatically in terms of site morphology and of the processes involved. Iron Age occupation has been confirmed in the deep fens well away from the upland margins. Some knowledge of the early and middle Saxon Fenland landscape has been revealed. Ceramic chronologies have also been developed and refined. Fifteen sites in Norfolk were investigated by the Norfolk Archaeological Unit. Two burnt flint mounds, at Feltwell and Northwold, were examined, as were four other prehistoric sites at Marham, Shouldham, Methwold, and Feltwell. The excavation of the Middleton saltern is the only complete excavation of a Roman saltern in the Fenland. Other Roman sites comprised the canal at Tilney, the road at Nordelph and the road and canal at Downham. The remaining sites included one early, three middle-Saxon and one late-Saxon site. Of the nine sites investigated in Cambridgeshire, seven were undertaken by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit and two by the Fenland Archaeological Trust. The sites included a later Iron Age ringwork at Coveney, a very large early Iron Age and Roman settlement at Chatteris, a rare late Bronze Age settlement at Cottenham, and major lithic spreads at Ramsey and Soham. Significant contributions will be made to lithic site studies and to the study of late Bronze Age and Iron Age ceramics within the south-western Fenland. The Cottenham site produced one third of a tripartite disc wheel and from Coveney came a rivet-decorated wooden stave from a small bucket or tankard.

Publication of this fieldwork will include thematic volumes in monograph form and individual site publication in national, regional, or period journals. A summary volume is to include basic data on all the sites investigated and brief summaries of the main results, some in advance of further analyses. It was felt that early summary publication of the results was essential prior to the completion of the integrated publication programme. The summary volume will contain locational information and physical, artefact, and environmental evidence for each site. The site summaries will be complemented by papers on site sampling, site management, environmental archaeology, and the future of the Fenland. The full publication of the lithics and saltmaking sites will benefit particularly from the complementary evidence from excavations and from extensive earlier survey data. The thematic volume on saltmaking in the Fenland will consider evidence from four excavated saltern sites, five excavated sites which generated briquetage without being essentially saltmaking sites, and 353 other sites which produced briquetage during the Fenland Survey phase. The saltmaking volume will present the systematic approach to the analysis of briquetage which has resulted in a standardised Fenland-wide characterisation and classification of this industrial equipment type for the first time. Environmental investigations, including assessment of salinity levels and micro-environments at the excavated sites, linked to environmental change in the Fenland, is integral to these studies. Publication of the first Fenland Management Project reports, the summary volume, and the saltmaking volume is anticipated in 1998.