Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:16:40.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Current research at Flag Fen, Peterborough

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Francis Pryor*
Affiliation:
Fenland Archaeological Trust, Flag Fen Excavations, Fourth Drove, Fengate, Peterborough PE1 5UR, UK

Extract

The papers in this Special Section present the latest results of research into the waterlogged later prehistoric site at Flag Fen, Peterborough. The landscape is almost flat and very low-lying, and the archaeological site consists of two main elements: a man-made timber platform and a kilometre-long alignment of posts, interpreted here as a defensive palisade. The site also has an important ritual component that continued into the Iron Age. Dendrochronology and other evidence indicates that the platform and posts were used for some 400 years, between about 1350 and 950 BC. This was a period of increasing wetness in the region.

Type
Special section
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, G.W. 1910. The discovery of prehistoric pits at Peterborough, ArchaeoJogia 62: 332–52.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. & Bradley, R.J. (ed.). 1980. The British later Bronze Age. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 83.Google Scholar
BS 565.1972. Glossary of terms relating to timberand woodwork. London: British Standards Institution.Google Scholar
Chowne, P. 1980. Bronze Age settlement in south Lincolnshire, in Barrett, & Bradley, (ed.): 295306.Google Scholar
Clark, J.G.D., Higgs, E.S. & Longworth, LH. 1960. Excavations at the prehistoric site at Hurst Fen, Mildenhall, Suffolk, 1954, 1957 and 1958, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 26: 202–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coombs, D.G. 1980. A note on the dating and archaeological significance of the Fengate, Newark Road subsite, spearhead fragment, in Pryor (1980a): 129.Google Scholar
Craddock, P.T. 1980. A note on the composition of of the Middle Bronze Age spearhead (74:1122) and the spill of metal (76:106) from Fengate Newark Road subsite, in Pryor (1980a): 128–9.Google Scholar
Craddock, P.T. 1984. A report on the scientific examination of the refactory and slag fragments from Iron Age con-texts at Fengate, in Pryor (1984): 174–5.Google Scholar
Evans, C. & Serjeantson, D. 1988. The backwater economy of a fen-edge community in the Iron Age: the Upper Delphs, Haddenham, Antiquity 62: 360–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R. 1979. The early courses of the river Nene, Durobrivae 7: 810.Google Scholar
French, C.A.I. 1984. A sediments analysis of the Latem Iron Age ditches at Fengate, Peterborough, in Pryor (1984): 259.Google Scholar
French, C.A.I. 1990. Neolithic soils, middens and alluvium in the lower Weiland valley, Oxford journal of Archaeology 9: 305–12.Google Scholar
French, C.A.I & Taylor, M. 1985. Desiccation and Destruction the immediate effects of de-watering at Etton, Cambridgeshire, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 4: 139–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, C.A.I & Waite, G.A. 1988. An archaeological survey of the Cambridgeshire river gravels. Cambridge: County Council, Dept. of Rural Management.Google Scholar
Godwin, H. & Vishnu-Mittre, . 1975. Studies of the post-glacial history of British vegetation XVI. Flandrian deposits of the Fenland margin at Holme Fen and Whittlesey Mere, Hunts, Philosophicai Transactions of the fioyal Society of London (series B) 270: 561608.Google Scholar
Hall, D.N. 1987. The Fenland Project, No. 2: Cambridgeshire survey, Peterborough to March. Cambridge: East Anglian Archaeology Report 35.Google Scholar
Hall, D.N. & Chippindale, C. (ed.). 1988. Special section: Survey, environment and excavation in the English Fenland, Antiquity 62: 305–80.Google Scholar
Hall, D.N., Evans, C., Hodder, I.R. & Pryor, F.M.M. 1987. The Fenlands of East Anglia, England: survey and excavation, in Coles, J.M. & Lawson, A. (ed.), European wetlands in Prehistory: 169202. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hawkes, C.F.C. & Fell, C.I. 1945. The Early Iron Age settlement at Peterborough, Archaeological Journal 100: 188223.Google Scholar
Hayes, P.P. 1988. Roman to Saxon in the South Lincolnshire Fens, Antiquity 62: 321–6.Google Scholar
Leeds, E.T. 1922. Further discoveries of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages at Peterborough, Antiquaries journal 2: 220–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louwe-Kooijmans, L.P. 1980. Archaeology and coastal change in the Netherlands, in Thompson, F.H. (ed.), Archaeology and coastal change: 106–33. London: Society of Antiquaries. Occasional Paper (n.s.) 1.Google Scholar
Martin, E. & Murphy, P. 1988. West Row Fen, Suffolk: a Bronze Age fen-edge settlement site, Antiquity 62: 353–8Google Scholar
Phillips, C.W. (ed.). 1970 The Fenland in Roman times. London: Royal Geographical Society. Research series 5.Google Scholar
Potter, T.W. & Potter, C.F.P 1982. A Romano-British village at Grandford, March, Cambridgeshire. London: British Museum. Occasional paper 35.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1974; 1978; 1980a; 1984. Excavation at Fengate, Peterborough England, the First… Fourth Reportfsj. Toronto and Northampton: Royal Ontario Museum/Northamptonshire Archaeological Society Monographs.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1980b. Will it all come out in the Wash? Reflections at the end of eight years’ digging, in Barrett, & Bradley, (ed.): 483500.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1983a. South-West fen-edge survey, 1982/83: an interim report, Northamptonshire Archaeology 18: 165–9.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1983b. Gone, but still respected: some evidence for Iron Age house platforms in lowland England, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 2: 189–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1988. Earlier Neolithic organised landscapes and ceremonial in lowland Britain, in Barrett, J.C. & Kinnes, I.A. (ed.), The Archaeology of context in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: recent trends: 6372. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology & Prehistory.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1989. ‘Look what we’ve found’ – a case-study in public archaeology, Antiquity 63: 5161.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1990. The many faces of Flag Fen, Scottish Archaeological Review 7: 114–24.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. 1991. The English Heritage book of Flag Fen: prehistoric Fenland centre. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M. & French, C.A.I. 1985. The Fenland Project, no. 1: Archaeology and environment in the Lower Weiland Valley. Cambridge: East Anglian Archaeology Report 27.Google Scholar
Pryor, F.M.M., French, C.A.I. & Taylor, M. 1986. Flag Fen, Fengate, Peterborough I: discovery, reconnaissance and initial excavations (1982–85), Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52: 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rchm, . 1969. Peterborough New Town; a survey of the antiquities in the areas of development. London: Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England).Google Scholar
Shennan, I. 1982. Problems of correlating Flandrian sea-level changes and climate, in Harding, A.F. (ed.), Climatic change in later prehistory: 5267. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, B.B. 1980. Iron Age and Roman coasts around the Wash, in Thompson, F.H. (ed.), Archaeology and coastal change: 5673. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Smith, I.F. 1956. The decorative art of Neolithic ceramics in South-Eastern England and its relations. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Institute of Archaeology, London University.Google Scholar
Wild, J.P. 1974. Roman settlement in the Lower Nene Valley, Archaeological Journal 131: 140–70.Google Scholar
Wood-Martin, W.G. 1886 [facsimile reprint 1983]. The lake dwellings of Ireland. Dublin: Beaver Row Press.Google Scholar