Oakington
Oakington is a village in Cambridgeshire. In 1926 three early Anglo-Saxon burials were identified but the cemetery site itself was not discovered until 1993 during building work. A further 26 burials were excavated. In 2006 17 more skeletons were excavated in front of development work. Since 2007 members of the archaeological and historical society, local schools, volunteers and UCLan students have excavated around 40 test pits in the village to trace its Saxon and Medieval development.
In 2010 a pilot excavation was carried out to the north-east of the 1993 excavation. Two burials and a series of later Saxon and Medieval wells, ditches and rubbish pits were excavated along with geophysical investigation. Ipswich ware, Thetford ware and St Neots pottery were all found alongside handmade early Saxon pottery.
The current research programme is designed to understand the history and development of Oakington and will take place between 2011 and 2015. A number of trenches around the cemetery, and the village, will help to develop a picture of Saxon family life on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fen by combining new research with what is understood from the previous excavations.
Dr Duncan Sayer (UCLan)
Richard Mortimer (Oxford Archaeology East)
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