NEWS

An unusual burial and a tragic story from Early Medieval Cambridgeshire14 Aug

Reconstruction drawing of the early medieval gate and boundary fence at Conington

Warning: this blog post contains images and discussion of human remains.   Our National Highways A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme continues to open windows to the past. The latest discovery, from the analysis of a rare type of early medieval burial, gives us a glimpse into the tragic life of a…


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Top 5 things you need to know about archaeological archives08 Aug

On the National Highways A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement scheme, we excavated hundreds of acres of land, recovered thousands of artefacts, and took over 100,000 photographs – but where does all the information go? In the last blog we dug into the A14 Digital Archive, today we’re taking a look…


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Digging into the Digital A1405 Jun

screenshot of the A14 digital archive homepage on the ADS website

On the National Highways A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement scheme, we excavated hundreds of acres of land, recovered thousands of artefacts, and took over 100,000 photographs – but where does all the information go? The answer is archives! A site archive is one of the most important parts of any…


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Geoarchaeology and environmental archaeology in action: the story of the A14 landscape and vegetation from the Bronze Age to the Early Medieval21 Mar

Archaeology isn’t just about people, it’s also about places. In fact, one thing that makes archaeology so important is that it can tell us about how entire landscapes looked in the past. It helps us understand why people lived where they did, the food they were eating, the materials they…


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The Bar Hill Comb01 Mar

Warning: this blog post contains images and discussion of human remains.   When archaeologists working on the National Highways A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme discovered a fragment of a comb, they knew they had found something unusual. But it took months of research by MOLA’s Finds Specialist, Michael Marshall, and Osteology…


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Huntingdon East, hidden in train sight – the archaeology of a forgotten station03 Jan

black and white historic photograph showing the station and train track

During our excavations on the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon National Highways scheme, we have found some amazing archaeology, including the earliest physical evidence for beer brewing and flint tools from more than 4000 years ago. But archaeology isn’t just about the ancient past. In fact, it helps us understand the…


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Pigs Teeth and Iron Nails – Masters students research the A14 past landscapes09 Nov

In 2021 Saskia Brogan and Katie Manby were awarded MA Scholarships for Reading University, funded by National Highways. This included placements working with the MOLA Headland team on the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Road Improvement Scheme, where they took part in a wide range of post-excavation work. Now they have both…


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Following in their pen strokes…28 Sep

Photo of the scribbled out words, you can't quite see what was written before

A spotlight on the mysterious funerary clerks of St James’s Burial Ground We’re working hard with volunteers to learn about the 18th and 19th century Londoners buried in St James’s Burial Ground. This project is part of the HS2 scheme. We’re finding out these Londoners’ names, ages and where they…


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Secrets of Deserted Villages31 Aug

As archaeologists, we usually focus on the excavation and analysis of the physical remains of people’s lives, such as pottery, bone, and coins. But there is another source of information which can bring a new element to our investigations! In this blog we will explore some historic documents. These relate…


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Murder they croaked? Investigating a prehistoric frog mystery on the A1408 Jul

Archaeology is not just the study of past human activity. It also looks at the animals that inhabited ancient landscapes. During excavations on the National Highways A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Road Improvement Scheme we retrieved more than four tonnes of animal bones, which we are now studying in detail.  Our…


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