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Fenscapes Archaeology Project

@fenscapes.bsky.social
185 followers 252 following 21 posts

Exploring archaeology and past environments in the Fens of Eastern England. Project based at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge

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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Update on #peatland #restoration at #WickenFen from Ellis @nationaltrust.org.uk ... our current #geoarchaeological and #palaeoenvironmental work even gets a mention 😍... one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the Fens - always worth a visit 💚 youtu.be/r4xBpivekeg?...
youtu.be
Peatland Restoration at Wicken Fen
YouTube video by EastofEnglandNT
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Great Fen @greatfen.org.uk · 29/07/2026
Our thanks to the numerous teams tackling the Holme Fen fire and to everyone who’s shown concern for this special site. Please share how important it is that any ignition source, from the smallest cigarette ember to portable bbqs and campfires are kept well away from our flammable dry peat soils!
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Cambridge University Press - Archaeology @cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org · 17/07/2026
Mark the #FestivalOfArchaeology with @antiquity.ac.uk's new themed collection, #Nature and Archaeology! Where not already #openaccess, articles are free to read until 31 August: 📚 cup.org/4fGAJYI
Nature & Archaeology. Antiquity.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
WOW! It works for the Fens too 🦦🚣‍♀️
A silly meme depicting an otter and an unmemorable mnemonic for naming the rivers of the Fens - River Witham, River Welland, River Nene, River Great Ouse, River Cam, River Lark, River Little Ouse, River Wissey, River Nar: Roman Roads Really Ran Right Resiliently
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
What a contrast! From a real pea-souper (thick fog) to endless blue skies in the space of a morning. Hope it's as sunny wherever you are 🌞😎 #FenlandFriday
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 22/04/2026
📰 Great to hear that, following it burning down last year, the new replica Iron Age roundhouse at Flag Fen, Cambridgeshire is nearing completion! 🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via the BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Flag Fen replacement roundhouse nears completion after fire
The roundhouse replaces one destroyed last summer in a suspected arson attack.
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Mark Knight 🍉 @markknight63.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
More must-see www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Digital art helps bring Britain's 'Pompeii' at Whittlesey to life
The installation uses AI to tell the story of a Bronze Age settlement destroyed by a fire.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Spotted as soon as we set foot onto a fenland field... #flint
Dorsal side of a utilised flake found in fenland field. A piece of dark brown to black struck flint, with off-white cortex and some abrupt retouch at the bottom, above which are a series of regular nearly vertical flake scars showing where earlier flakes have been removed.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The #Fens or the metro map of a watery metropolis? 🌊🏙️🚇 The complexity and interconnectedness of the Fens is strikingly illustrated in Arup's schematic map of the region's water infrastructure This and much more to ponder #Fens2100+ Baseline Report 🔗👇 www.gov.uk/government/p...
A schematic map in a style similar to a metro/underground map, showing  showing the network of rivers, drains and other water infrastructure in the Fens of eastern England
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Could stare at this for hours... #roddons #fenland
Visualisation of LIDAR of an area between Whittlesey and March in Cambridgeshire, showing a complex multi-phase network of former creeks and river channels surviving as subtly raised banks (highlighted in yellow) standing slightly proud of the subsiding fields around them (dark blue tones)
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Cambridge Archaeology @cam-archaeology.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
🌱 The FAIR Fenland Deposit-modelling Dataset will be led by Dr Phil Stastney. The dataset will support 3D modelling of past landscapes, including an open-access database of over 15,000 trenches, test pits and boreholes.
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Cambridge Archaeology @cam-archaeology.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
🌱 The Online Atlas of Past Animals and Plants in the Fens will be led by Dr Rachel Ballantyne, in collaboration with Poppy Szaybo from @clr-cambridge.bsky.social. The atlas will draw upon a new database of over 1.2 million ancient plant and animal remains.
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Cambridge Archaeology @cam-archaeology.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
We are delighted to share that the @fenscapes.bsky.social Project have been awarded two grants from the first round of the @hsds-update.bsky.social Small Grants Programme. The two newly-funded projects will create innovative online resources. 👉 Find out more: www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/fenscap... 🧵
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Excited to announce HSDS are supporting TWO brand new datasets from the Fens!🎉 1️⃣Digital atlas of ancient plants and animals using our huge Fens enviro database 2️⃣Open sediment sequence dataset to help build reusable geoarchaeological deposit models Watch this space! 🙏@hsds-update.bsky.social
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 23/02/2026
NEW Archaeologists often claim they can contribute to modern 'global challenges' such as climate change, but rarely get a space at the policymaking table The latest #AntiquityDebate proposes an approach to ensure archaeology's relevance and impact 🏺 #Archaeology 1/2 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
doi.org
A space at the table? Global challenges and contemporary archaeology as plural transdisciplinary design for the future
In this debate article, the authors argue that archaeologists seeking practical relevance must start with a critical, expanded understanding of the contemporary, including how communities, stakeholders and complex policy structures operate to navigate unfolding socioecological crises.
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MAEASaM @maeasamproject.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Accessibility and reuse underpin FAIR, but applying them varies across contexts. We clean, validate, and structure data with clear metadata and rights frameworks. Public data is shared under Creative Commons, with limits where needed. maeasam.org/accessing-re... #Digitalheritage #Datapolicy #Fair
Screenshot from Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site, displaying metadata elements.Screenshot from Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site, displaying “Copyright & Access” group metadata elements.Screenshot from the “Accessing Responsibly” article from 9th Issue
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Hear Fenscapers Rachel, Phil and Neal taking about our work & 5,000 years' worth of environmental archaeology in the Fens! Great to be invited by Fens East Peat Partnership to give a webinar last month - now on YouTube, along with many other great talks @lincswildlife.bsky.social shorturl.at/x3alQ
youtu.be
5000 years of environmental archaeology in the Fens
YouTube video by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
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Convention on Wetlands @ramsar.org · 02/02/2026
Happy #WorldWetlandsDay! Traditional knowledge has long guided the sustainable use of wetlands. As the Convention on Wetlands marks 55 years, #WorldWetlandsDay2026 calls on us to protect wetlands and honour cultural heritage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Mc...
youtube.com
World Wetlands Day 2026
YouTube video by The Convention on Wetlands
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National Trust @nationaltrust.org.uk · 02/02/2026
This is a pioneering new wetland restoration project on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border at Coleshill. It was designed to bring clean-water habitats back to the River Cole floodplain and create a much-needed wildlife corridor where 90% of freshwater habitats have been lost over the last century.
Aerial image of a green landscape near a village with areas of wetland
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Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust @lincswildlife.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
For our first Wilder Lincolnshire podcast of 2026, the team headed north to Crowle Moor to catch up with two of the Fens East Peat Partnership project officers and discuss the benefits and potential problems of using drones in conservation. Listen now at www.lincstrust.org.uk/wilder-linco...
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 02/02/2026
Wetlands often preserve organic archaeological remains, but they are under threat from climate change #WorldWetlandsDay New research in the Fens of eastern England shows the need for integrated heritage and environmental management. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
doi.org
Fenscapes: archaeology, natural heritage and environmental change in the Fens of eastern England
The Fenscapes project investigates trajectories of landscape, habitat and species change in the Fens of eastern England from the Neolithic to the present, with the aim to build self-reflective understandings of land-use and wetland management. Yet underlying biases exist in data patterning linked to burial depth and archaeological practice.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Happy World Wetlands Day! 🌍 🏛️💧🌱 Did you know about the variety of wetlands that exist around the East Anglian Fens? These incredible habitats preserve evidence of past environmental change & human activity over thousands of years, as well as being vital for biodiversity, water & carbon management
A metal peat sampler laying on grass. The sampler contains a core of wood peat - the base of the core, to the left, is pale grey sandy clay which is overlain by dark brown peat containing pale yellow wood fragmentsA view of the artificially-straightened River Nene, looking downstream. The river channel runs from the foreground through the centre of the picture into the flat horizon. Either side of the river are fields - pasture to the right, and arable fields to the left. Also to the left of the riverbank are two yellow dredging machines.Two people pushing an auger into the ground at Wicken Fen. In the foreground is an orange bag containing coring equipment.  Beneath a blue sky with fluffy white clouds, a mowed droveway stretches off towards the horizon, flanked on either sides by reeds.View across part of Dersingham Bog. In the foreground are dark pools of water, surrounded by mosses and heather. The tussocky bog stretches away from the viewer towards a line of pine and birch trees that surround the bog.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
First food alert of the winter for the Ouse Washes check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/target-area/...
check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk
Flood alert for Hundred Foot Washes in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk - GOV.UK
Flooding information and advice for the area: Hundred Foot Washes, also known as the Ouse Washes, including the causeways at Earith, Sutton Gault and Welney.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Last chance to see? Thought provoking piece about the future of peatland archaeology Open access and well worth a read!
cambridge.org
Last chance to see? The ‘Crisis of Preservation’ and pathways to a sustainable future for Europe’s peatland archaeology | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Last chance to see? The ‘Crisis of Preservation’ and pathways to a sustainable future for Europe’s peatland archaeology
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Mark Knight 🍉 @markknight63.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Submerged forest #FlagFenBasin #Fenland
Archaeological section showing Holocene stratigraphy with preserved tree stump
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Paid an impromptu visit to Crowland Abbey this afternoon. One of the most important medieval religious centres in the Ferns. Looking very picturesque in the autumn afternoon sun today 👌
View of the ruins of Crowland Abbey, with the church beyond
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
Day 2 at 50 Years of Discovery in Norwich. Dr Neal Payne presenting a first glimpse of our huge new environmental archaeological database, that illustrates the history of farming and ecology in the Fens stretching back thousands of years! 🌾🐏🐄
Dr Neal Payne standing by his conference poster
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
First talk at the 50 Years of Discovery conference in Norwich, and the Fens already get an honourable mention in Prof Carenza Lewis's top 20 sites in East Anglia! #flagfen #fenland
Prof Carenza Lewis giving a conference presentation
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Beautiful!
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Two more weeks till Dublin!! Can't wait for this!
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
First project output published! 🙌 Fully open access Read more about our project and initial results here! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Fenscapes: archaeology, natural heritage and environmental change in the Fens of eastern England | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
Fenscapes: archaeology, natural heritage and environmental change in the Fens of eastern England
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Cambridge Archaeology @cam-archaeology.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣 Fenscapes: archaeology, natural heritage and environmental change in the Fens of eastern England in @antiquity.ac.uk 👉 www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/fenscap... 📸 Fenscapes Team @cambridgearch.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk
The team augeringWicken Lode
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Timby2 @timby2.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
This is Radio 4 at its best - an immersive "documentary" about Lindow Man, Lindow Woman, their society, discovery and their ongoing relevance. Well worth a listen even if bog bodies aren't your thing! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Illuminated - Voices from the Bog - BBC Sounds
Old voices offer new perspectives on the discovery of Lindow Man and Woman, 40 years on.
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Fenscapes Archaeology Project @fenscapes.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
The project team are heading down en-masse for @AEA_Oxford24 later this week. Looking forward a couple of days of exciting talks, meeting old friends and presenting our first results from the #Fens! See you there!
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