HARLOW Museum and Walled Gardens is hosting an Archaeology Fair from 10am – 2pm on July 13th. The event was inspired by the recent release of reports by Oxford Archaeology concerning the 2018 Gilden Way dig which revealed the fascinating history of the site.

The Museum event on July 13th will host archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology who will bring a selection of the thousands of finds from the site and will also be available to date items that members of the public might bring along.

The Museum will display a History of Harlow through Archaeology timeline. There will be objects that can be handled and activities for adults and children alike.

Simple refreshments will be available, and visitors are encouraged to bring along picnics to enjoy in the gardens.

One of the most important – and earliest – discoveries at the site was a previously unknown Neolithic causewayed enclosure, an early form of circular monument dating to c.3500 BC, that groups of Early Neolithic people used communally, possibly for feasting or for ceremonies to remember their ancestors. Previously archaeologists had believed that Neolithic people were just passing through Harlow but we now know that they settled here.

The area continued to be settled during the Bronze and Iron ages and was part of a villa estate during the Roman period. In fact, three cremation cemeteries – dating to the very end of the Iron Age or beginning of the Roman period in the 1st century AD – were found amongst the fields, with individual burials containing grave goods such as ceramic vessels and brooches.

There is also evidence of medieval occupation close to the medieval village of Harlowbury when historical documents record that the field formed part of a farmstead or croft belonging to Ralph, son of Ralph de Harlow.