Bronze Age - about 4,000 - 2,000 years ago

During the Bronze Age, farming was a well-established lifestyle and metal-working was a new technology. Excavations in the Fengate area reveal that the fen edge was divided up by a network of ditches and hedged banks into droves and fields, amongst which stood round buildings. This field system led from dry ground to the ever wetter fen, and was maintained for over 1,000 years. It was probably designed to manage flocks of sheep grazing on the lush fen margins.

The excavation of Bronze Age burial mounds in the area and the well preserved timber post alignment and platform at Flag Fen have given us rare glimpses of Bronze Age life, ritual and death. A large number of weapons, and other bronze items, had been placed in the fen waters near the post alignment. Later prehistoric people often gave mystical significance to such watery places and precious items were offered to the gods through pools and rivers. Iron Age swords and other items have been found in an old course of the River Nene near Orton Longueville.

The Iron Age (about 2,800 2,000 years ago) saw the introduction of working with iron, a stronger metal than previously used. Iron Age people worked the landscape more intensively. Their ploughs could cope with heavier soils, and their settlements were larger and more numerous. Around Peterborough were clusters of timber-built, thatched round houses surrounded by small fields. People used mixed farming methods they grew crops but also relied heavily on products from cows and sheep. Two enclosed settlements protected by large banks and ditches, are known locally at Werrington and Borough Fen.