Cottenham, Cambridgeshire : Plan of excavations
Cottenham, situated on the fen-edge north of Cambridge, is an elongated village with a crooked main street which appears to kink around an early village core. Excavations by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit of the University of Cambridge took place in advance of a large housing development. Extending over 2.15 ha, the site lies immediately to the northwest of the village centre alongside Crowlands Moat (a Scheduled Ancient Monument). Crossed by a dense network of Saxon and medieval ditches, the spaghetti-like appearance of the site-plan reflects large-scale reorganisation and contraction, and demonstrates the dynamic interaction between manor and village.
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The initial phase of excavation in the late summer of 1996 was funded by the developers (Beazer Homes) and revealed more complex archaeological features than had been anticipated. This offered a rare opportunity for detailed study of the origins and development of an historic village on a broad scale, and EH funded a second phase of excavation in the late winter of 1997 to enable the full exposure of a swathe of earlier Saxon settlement across the north of the site. Despite evidence for some later Mesolithic activity and a scatter of early Iron Age features, the site was essentially of early Saxon to early medieval date. The plans of seven Saxon and Saxo-Norman post-built halls were recovered and others will probably be identified during analysis. Only one sunken-feature building was present suggesting that, like West Heslerton and Willingham, halls and sunken-feature buildings lay within different portions of the settlement. During the early to middle Saxon period, much of the area was divided up by a series enclosures defined by small ditches and post-trenches; essentially large yards with timber buildings around their perimeter. Despite the scale of the excavations, it is difficult to establish the size of the early settlement zone; compound yards may have continue further south into the area of the later village core. The northern side of this system, however, which corresponds approximately to the divide between terrace gravels and heavier clayish sub-soils, clearly remained a major boundary during the subsequent phase of enclosure and, effectively represents the fenward limits of village settlement.
In late Saxon or Saxo-Norman times this layout was replaced by a pattern of spoke-like boundaries and what little evidence there is of associated settlement/occupation was restricted to the southern margin of the site. Although this may represent a system of radial land-division fanning out from the high ground down to the fen (similar to the organisation of Dutch terpen), it more probably reflects an accommodation of allotment. This appears to occur in relationship to the Demesne Lands to the east and the north-western corner of the early town core, around which the ditches appear to turn. Although these boundaries were frequently re-cut, the system only remained in use until the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries.
Some 1,350 pottery sherds were recovered, of which approximately 75% are of Saxon attribution. In keeping with the ratio of assemblages of the period, bone was much more prolific (c8,000 pieces). Although no industrial features were recorded, quantities of iron slag attests to metalworking during the Saxon occupation. The rich assemblage of charred plant remains, which is remarkably diverse, and includes many seeds not usually encountered, is particularly important, and the bulk sampling programme was accordingly intense. Glume wheat, lentils, and peas are amongst the many types present, and most of the remains which probably represent debris from crop processing have considerable potential to provide information about Saxon agricultural practices. The scale of work not only provides detailed insights into the organisation of Saxon settlement and the early fenland economy, but also allows the broader dynamics of early village life to be explored.