Excavation of a Romano-British Settlement on the A149 Snettisham Bypass, 1989

Truncated remains of an extensive settlement dating from the mid-first to the late second century survived beneath the modern ploughsoil at Snettisham. The Romano-British settlement was based on a mixed economy of farming and low intensity industry and demonstrated the survival of traditional techniques of house construction, and the continued importance of handmade pottery well into the Roman period. The excavation produced a useful pottery assemblage which complements other groups from the Saxon Shore Fort at Brancaster, and a number of Fenland sites. A decline in valley floor activity occurred at approximately the same time as construction of a villa on higher ground to the east, and it is possible that environmental changes in the Fenland region during the third century resulted in a shift of settlement to the east. This eastern focus persisted in the Saxon and medieval periods, and no evidence was found for intensive post-Roman use of the excavated area.