Roman inhumations and boundary ditch, 9 London Road, Great Chesterford (EHER 83410)

Trial and excavation in 2015 recorded four inhumation burials (one of which was an infant burial) and a boundary ditch. A possible buried soil was also recorded, and a pit which had been interpreted as a flue was proven to be most likely a hearth.

August 2015. Trial trenching. Trench 2 contained two ditches and a possible flue. The features contained Roman (generally early 2nd - 4th century) pottery, some ceramic building material (CBM), animal bone and iron fragments. <1> 2016. Archaeological excavation. The presence of four graves demonstrates that this site lies within the London Road cemetery and helps to define the form and extent of the area used for burial activity. That all of the recorded burials were identified to the south-west of a boundasry ditch suggests that this ditch may form the boundary to the cemetery in this location. Skeletal evidence suggests that the individuals represented in the graves recorded had hard, working lives. The sunken-featured building represents the first example of a Saxon building within Great Chesterford. <2> November 2015. Archaeological excavation. A total of 17 archaeological features were recorded. A north-west to south-east aligned ditch which terminated in the south-eastern part of the excavated area may represent some form of boundary, possibly to delineate the extent of the cemetery (EHER 4849). A large pit was recorded in the centre of the excavated area and had been incorrectly interpreted as a possible flue during the evaluation. Full excavation now shows this not to be the case. Reddening of the natrual substrate around the ides is suggestive of in situ burning; however, the absence of a clay lining suggests that interpretation as a kiln is inaccurate. A hearth is the more likely interpretation. Also recorded was a possible buried soil or sub soil which was cut by the boundary ditch and was therefore deposited prior to the creation of the boundary. Four graves were recorded to the south-west of the boundary ditch. Two were positioned on a north-west to south-east alignmenet, immeditaely adjacent to one another. It is possible that this demonstrates some kind of kinship link between two individuals. One represented the remains of a woman of approximately 35-50 years of age, and the other was that of a man aged 45+ years. Slightly to the south-east of these features was a third grave which was aligned north-east to south-west. The human remains contained within this grave were gbadly damaged with only a few teeth and skull fragments present. This was an infant burial, and the child would have been approxiamtely 5 years old; this, to some extent, may account for the poor preservation of the skeleton. Four metres to the south-east lay the fourth grave which was arranged on a similar alignment to that of the infant burial with the head of the individual to the north-east and the feet to the south-west. This was a male of around 35-45 years of age. <2>