Colonising Inlands: Later Prehistoric and Roman North West Cambridge
Organised by Histon & Impington Archaeology Group (HIAG)
Speaker: Chris Evans, Director, Cambridge Archaeological Unit
This talk is based on excavations between Huntingdon Rd and Madingley Road. These revealed occupation of north west Cambridge from 3500 to 1500 years ago from Bronze Age burials to a high-status Roman Villa, alongside what was the main Roman Road from Colchester to Cambridge and through the midlands to Chester – a superhighway of its time..
This talk will outline the results of more than 20 years of fieldwork in the University’s West Cambridge lands. Focusing on the importance of water-supply resourcing, it will address the dynamics of inland colonization during the Bronze Age and the nature of its subsequent Iron Age utilization. It will also review the many Roman-Period settlements that have now been dug there. Including a villa, eight farmsteads and a major roadside centre, the programme has provided major insights into Roman Cambridge’s hinterlands. Indeed, it now amount to one of the most comprehensive excavation programmes of the Roman countryside anywhere undertaken.
