Ashwell Hoard Dig and Finds 2005 and 2006

After the importance of the hoard was realised Gil Burleigh organised fieldwork to place it in context and investigate the site.

Geophysical Survey over a large area revealed a Romano-British settlement along a street with evidence of large timber buildings and a circular enclosure in an isolated position but near the hoard site —this was where excavations would be.

Surface material and metal deposits were concentrated near or in the enclosure.

Excavations over four seasons have revealed an open-air shrine defined by a chalk pebble circular pathway enclosing an area of silty soils about 14 metres across.

Scattered throughout the shrine was much archaeological material but also four special votive deposits. The objects appear to have been especially chosen and although buried in 2nd century AD there are a surprising number of Bronze Age weapons and Iron Age coins.

There are at least four hearths in the enclosure around which there were many bone fragments, pig bones and oyster shells suggesting much feasting.

A chalk platform 2 by 1.4 metres was the floor of a roofed building that could have been a shrine for a statue of the goddess Senuna or a place for laying out bodies.