Skeletons and Anglo-Saxon homes unearthed in road dig

Archaeologists have found artefacts covering thousands of years of Nottinghamshire's past in early work ahead of a major road scheme.

A team working prior to the widening of the A46 has excavated more than 23 acres (9.63 hectares) of land across five fields near Newark, revealing items which potentially date back to 6,000BC.

Among the discoveries were the remains of seven people, prehistoric flint tools, two probable Anglo-Saxon houses and a Roman well.

Archaeologist Pese Salinas said: "It's exciting to have these finds - it was exciting to come to the site every day."

The dig is part of preparations for the widening of four miles of the single-carriageway A46 around Newark, between the Farndon and Winthorpe roundabouts.

The project will also create a flyover for the A46 at the Cattle Market roundabout, build a new bridge over the A1 and enlarge the Winthorpe roundabout.

But before this can begin, the area was examined for traces of past communities.

The burials uncovered have been provisionally dated to between the Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon periods, but further analysis is expected to narrow this range.

The remnants of an Anglo-Saxon house - known as a grubenhaus - were also found in the same area. A grubenhaus is a German word for "sunken-floored building", and was typical of Anglo-Saxon settlements but would have been rare to find in Nottinghamshire.

Other items discovered include pottery dating from Roman and Iron Age periods, flint arrowheads and a saddle quern - two shaped stones - used to grind flour in the Neolithic period.

Salinas, from Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS), said the finds gave a unique insight into the people who lived in the area.

"It tells us what kind of food they produced, the way they lived, how they built their houses, so there is a lot of social and economic information we can get out of it," Salinas added.

"It's exciting to have these finds, it was exciting to come to the site every day, whether it was sunny or raining, and see what we could uncover.

"Now we have a big selection of finds and soil samples and all of these have to be given to different specialists."

Naziya Sheikh, National Highways project manager for the A46 Newark scheme, said: "The experts have done an amazing job to uncover these important pieces of history that have unknowingly remained buried under Newark until now.

"We're excited to finally be able to share the details with residents in the town and beyond as part of our early pre-construction work on the A46 scheme."

It is hoped some of the artefacts and findings will be able to go on public display in Newark, but details of this will be confirmed at a later date.

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