The Saxon Settlement Excavations at Buckden
Oxford Archaeology recently excavated a 6-hectare rural site south of Buckden, between St Neots and Huntingdon. Highlights were a large Bronze-Age cremation cemetery and an early to middle Saxon settlement that included exceptionally large and complex examples of a sunken featured building and a hall.
A rare iron plough coulter (possibly deliberately buried) is evidence for a major shift in agricultural technology and possible ritual deposition. Other finds include glass beads and vessel fragments, coins including two sceattas and two pennies (both Offa), 41 bone combs, 28 knives, over 100 loom weights. The quality and range of features and finds suggests this settlement may have been a Saxon estate centre.
Speaker: James Fairbairn, Project Officer, Oxford Archaeology East
Long term FRAG members will remember James from the community excavation of the Itter Crescent villa, and his talk about parts of a Spitfire retrieved from Holme Fen.
FREE for FRAG members
