Archaeologists have discovered an ancient settlement in west Huntingdonshire (England). Evidence of the 3,000-year-old site came to light as a result of a routine dig before four new homes are built on a site in Thrapston Road.
     "Before we started work there was little evidence of pre-historic settlement in the area. We now know that people have been living and working in Spaldwick since the Bronze Age," Excavation director Susan Clelland, from the charity Wessex Archaeology Limited, said.
     The excavators discovered a series of inter-cutting ditches and pits that have helped shed light on the origins of the village in the Bronze Age. By the Iron Age (approximately 2,500 years ago) a ditch surrounded the settlement. By this stage people were harvesting crops from adjacent fields, and mixed deciduous woodland was probably used for grazing animals such as pigs, she said.
     Finds from the site include domestic waste usually associated with settlement, such as pottery and animal bones, and a well-preserved bone comb was also discovered. Brendon Wilkins, project manager for Wessex Archaeology, said: "Just as Spaldwick is an attractive place to settle today, it was also attractive to people from the pre-historic onwards. The excavation has been an excellent opportunity to investigate why people choose to live here and how those reasons changed over generations."

Source: Hunts Post 24 (5 August 2010)