What they found

Cropmarks identified from an aerial photograph were the only indication that a Neolithic causewayed enclosure lay under a field at Northborough, near Peterborough. Time Team, in close collaboration with Francis Pryor and Ben Robinson, the Peterborough City Council archaeologist, had the rare opportunity to evaluate this enigmatic monument, which is located just two kilometres east of the previously excavated causewayed enclosure site at Etton.

The geophysics survey covered six hectares of the site. This successfully identified the two sets of concentric segmented ditches, which were visible in the aerial photograph. It also highlighted a higher magnetic response in the interior of the monument than between the sets of ring ditches.

Excavation over the inner circuits on the west and east sides revealed that the Neolithic ground surface and the ditches were buried under alluvium. No evidence for banks was found but the patterning of segmented ditches and causeways was clearly visible. Areas of burning were discovered on the raised ditch infill on the west side. Mildenhall pottery found in the ditch and a broken flint arrowhead dated the inner circuits to about 3500 BC.

On the west side, Beaker pottery sealed a ditch and a poorly fired pot containing burnt grain was excavated from the bottom of the ditch. Phosphate analysis across the site highlighted the presence of cattle within the circuits; and environmental archaeology specialist Peter Rowley-Conwy concluded that butchered bones, from the ditches on the west side, indicated that bulls were being castrated here. (Large hindlimb bones found on the site could only have come from bullocks, as they would not have developed to such a size in bulls or cows.)

Trenches across the outer circuits on the west side revealed shorter, shallower segments of ditch. An auroch bone was discovered at the bottom of one ditch. While it was interpreted that the Team had excavated entrances through the inner and outer circuits on the west site, finds were very scarce. Although the water table was high, organic remains were not prevalent.

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