Anglo-Saxon burial site unearthed at Bicker Fen during National Grid Viking Link work

A human burial site - along with historic objects dating back to Roman and Anglo-Saxon times - has been unearthed at Bicker Fen, revealing a hidden past.

Experts uncovered the remains of 16 adults, four teenagers and two children at the village during the Viking Link project.

Items discovered included a Roman bone comb and pin to hold hairstyles in place and an incense burning vessel which could be viewed by visitors at an interactive drop-in event held in Lincolnshire.

Artefacts found during the works were carefully recovered and these include Roman and Anglo-Saxon items.

As part of the energy supplier’s construction, a project team worked with archaeology experts who carried out a number of detailed surveys along the planned cable route and converter site location.

Peter Bryant from Viking Link said: “The events have been a huge success and it has been fantastic to welcome so many people keen to find out more about the area’s hidden past.”

Archaeologists also found evidence of Roman occupation at the site with surveys showing a system of wide deep ditches defining fields and activity areas and animal bone assemblage showing that people at the time kept animals onsite including cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, and chickens.

A wealth of Roman pottery was recovered from the area and the features show that the site was primarily in use from the mid-2nd century AD onwards extending into the 4th century.

Evidence of an Anglo-Saxon agricultural landscape at Bicker Fen, with sweeping curved ditches that enclosed areas of land, was unearthed.

Although these areas look very different from Roman archaeology, they also reinforce the area’s historic link to farming.

The Viking Link connects electricity between the British and Danish transmission systems.

Construction of the electricity interconnector started in 2019 and during the work, engineers laid over 40 miles of land cable through Lincolnshire stretching from Sutton-on-Sea to the project’s converter site at Bicker Fen.

The cable runs for 475 miles under land and sea to join Bicker Fen with the Danish village of Revsing.

Once complete, it will enable the countries to share enough green energy to power up to 1.4 million UK homes.