Fifty finds from the archaeological excavations carried out for the A14 improvement scheme are featured in a new book.  

The objects featured include a beautifully carved stone axe head from the Old Stone Age, beads of two amber necklaces from the Bronze Age and a very rare Roman coin. 

The excavations along the Cambridge and Huntingdon route are considered one of the most complex undertaken in the UK and 280,947 artefacts were unearthed. 

And the six years of specialist analysis and research that followed have revealed 12,000 years of the area’s history and pre-history.  

The Hunts Post: Finds from the A14 excavations featured in the new book by the archaeological team behind the digs.Finds from the A14 excavations featured in the new book by the archaeological team behind the digs. (Image: ©MOLA Headland Infrastructure)The book – titled “Unearthing the A14; 50 objects from one of Britain’s biggest digs” - also features the sometimes-unexpected stories these findings tell of past people, animals and landscapes of the A14.  

For example, the stone axe head is from the Palaeolithic period between 750,000 and 12,000 years ago.  

Made before the end of the last Ice Age, it would have been a much-treasured possession of a nomadic hunter-gatherer.  

The Hunts Post: Amber beads from a Bronze Age necklace.Amber beads from a Bronze Age necklace. (Image: ©MOLA Headland Infrastructure)Meanwhile, the amber necklace beads were discovered from a cremation burial.  

Amber was a highly-prized material and experts say its inclusion in the burial suggests the two cremated individuals were of high status.  

Other findings show how Cambridgeshire has long been connected to wider trade routes such as a rare ‘radiate’, a type of coin from the Romans.  

The Hunts Post: Rare Roman coin of Emperor Laelianus unearthed in the A14 excavations.Rare Roman coin of Emperor Laelianus unearthed in the A14 excavations. (Image: ©MOLA Headland Infrastructure)The piece is of Emperor Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus and only one other coin of its kind has previously been found in an archaeological dig in England.  

Laelianus was emperor for only a matter of months and this coin likely didn’t arrive in Cambridgeshire until well after his execution.     

The book is being published by the Museum of London Archeology Headland Infrastructure which carried out the excavations and National Highways.  

The Hunts Post: The National Highways A14 improvement scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon. The National Highways A14 improvement scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon. (Image: Courtesy of National Highways)A digital interactive has also been released with the title, called ‘A14 Roadtrip to the Past’. 

This offers a deeper dive into the archaeology of the A14 and the excavation’s findings.  

The book is available at https://shop-mola.myshopify.com/