Roman ditch at Site 28, M11 widening (EHER 16952)

A Roman ditch, possibly a field boundary, discovered during an excavation in advance of the M11 widening.

1993. Excavation. Roman ditch - possibly a field boundary. Site 28 was located to the north of the known Saxon settlement at Wicken Bonhunt (EHER 185-6) in an area that may have contained an associated cemetery (five inhumations had been found during excavations for the M11 slip road in 1977 (see EHER 331). Three trenches were excavated, of these, only one (Trench G) contained archaeological features. At the northern end of this trench a ditch (feature 200) running NNE-SSW was located, its southern end had been truncated by modern disturbance. It had a u-shaped profile approximately 1.20m wide and up to 1m deep and contains animal bone and Roman tile fragments. It may have been a field boundary ditch. Although no burials were discovered, the area of investigation was rather wide and perhaps features were missed. The trial trenches showed that modern disturbance was severe, resulting in the likely removal of all shallow archaeological features. However, the single Roman feature does indicate the northern limit of this truncation and that there is a presence of archaeological features in the vicinity. <1> - <3>