Digging up St Neots past and part of its future

18.01.23

Over 150 residents, neighbours and members of the surrounding community delved into the fascinating past at St Neots Wintringham’s Archaeology Day in October.

Urban&Civic’s Wintringham team worked with partners Oxford Archaeology and St Neots Museum to produce a wealth of information and artefacts from excavations at Wintringham and the local area, dating back as early as the Middle Bronze Age – over 3,500 years ago. Visitors were able to see how archaeological investigations are helping piece together the jigsaw of St Neots’ past.

So far, the remains of around 60 roundhouses - used as homes - have been found at Wintringham. They survive in the ground as circular ditches or gullies, which outline the shape of the outer walls. Visitors were treated to a glimpse of what life would have been like in the Iron Age with models of Wintringham’s roundhouses on display as well as an interactive Iron Age experience from a re-enactor who brought along a range of activities for the whole family to enjoy.

As well as presentations on the latest finds at Wintringham, which include a possible shrine complex at the heart of a large Roman settlement, Oxford Archaeology brought a range of Roman artefacts from the latest dig. These included rotary querns used for grinding grain into flour, painted wall plaster, animal bones from a Roman enclosure ditch and pottery fragments found in an Early Roman kiln.

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