They were all pulled from a single 14-meter-long moat, right next to the site of an Iron Age round house on Bar Hill, where there was a settlement in the Middle and Late Iron Age (400 BC-43 AD). The discovery was made by the London Archaeological Museum (Mola) Headland Infrastructure, which is conducting excavations as part of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon National Highway road improvement project. Although it is not uncommon to find frog bones in ancient sites, archaeologists are puzzled by the huge amount of artifacts discovered at Bar Hill. Dr Vicki Ewens, a senior Mola archaeologist who specializes in ancient animal bones, told the Observer: “In my experience, mainly working in locations in London, we do not have that many frogs. “It’s great that so many bones come out of a ditch.” Zoologist Vicki Ewens analyzes frog bones found at Bar Hill. Photo: © Mola / AndyChopping Noting that these bones belong mainly to the common frog and the common frog, species found in garden ponds across the country, he said: “We also had possible evidence of a pool frog, which is fascinating. “In my research, I found only two Saxon sites with individual bones in each. It is a frog found only in the East of England and died in the 1990s, probably due to habitat loss, but has recently returned. As it is a prehistory, it is difficult to find an explanation, although ancient civilizations – including the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks and Romans – all saw the frog as a symbol of fertility, among other correlations. Bar Hill It is unlikely that these amphibians were eaten by the people living in the settlement. Archaeologists say that while there is evidence of amphibian consumption in Britain dating back to the Stone Age, these bones have no cuts or signs of burns. If the frogs had boiled, however, this may have left no trace. Evidence of charred grains found near the site suggests that its inhabitants cultivated crops that would attract parasites such as beetles and aphids, which are known to be eaten by frogs. So maybe the frogs were pulled from the area by the promise of food, archaeologists suggest. Other possible explanations include “a prehistoric frog tragedy”. Archaeologists say frogs are known to move in large numbers in the spring in search of breeding ground and could have fallen into the ditch and become trapped. According to one hypothesis, the unusual death toll may also have been caused by winter hardships. While hibernating frogs sometimes hide in the mud, extreme cold can kill them and they may fall victim to a particularly harsh winter. Alternatively, they may have contracted the disease, just as they did in the 1980s, when British frogs were destroyed by a rana virus. It is not clear how deep the ditch was. The field team dug about a meter of vegetation and subsoil to reach it. Only small quantities of household waste were found at the site, which included Iron Age pottery shells. Aerial view of the archeological site excavated at Bar Hill. Photo: © Mola / HeadlandInfrastructure The amphibian bones are among a huge number of finds, from artifacts to human remains, during about 40 excavations carried out between 2016 and 2018 on an area of 234 hectares. The analyzes are still ongoing, although the excavations have now been completed. Ewens has spent the past two years studying the bones of animals, including cattle. Once all the studies are gathered, we hope to shed new light on the lives they lived thousands of years ago and discover the cause behind the death of so many amphibians.
