Archaeologists hard at work, painstakingly removing layers of dirt as signs of ancient settlement emerge.
An exhibition of finds unearthed by archaeologists at a former gravel pit in Leicestershire’s Watermead Country Park is on show at Charnwood Museum until September 26.
It was eight years ago that experts from the University of Leicester discovered evidence of human occupation dating back as far as 5,000 years ago at the site, which was originally a channel of the River Soar.
"It’s one of those classic hidden secrets beneath your feet scenarios" Richard Knox of Leicestershire County Council’s Archaeological Services Team told the 24 Hour Museum.
A reconstruction of what the site might have looked like all those years ago by Debbie Miles-Williams.
The site had been greatly changed during the last century by gravel extraction, but what emerged offered something of a snapshot of the evolving ancient history of the site.
From a prehistoric 'burnt mound' complex, that may have been a cooking site, to an early Anglo-Saxon footbridge, thousands of years of activity came out of the ground.
There was also a large amount of organic material found, including human and animal bones and microscopic seeds and pollen, which normally rot away.
Timbers from an Anglo Saxon footbridge c. AD500, used to cross the marsh.
"It just makes you wonder what else was there when the other gravel pits were dug up," added Richard Knox.
The exhibition has been paid for by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, which is aimed at providing a wide range of benefits to communities affected by gravel extraction.
It consists of a series of panels that tell the story of the excavation and goes some way to explaining what the finds can teach us about the ancient history of this pocket of Leicestershire.
A timber-lined trough where water was probably heated.
As well as the huge amount of information on offer, visitors will come face to face with some of the artefacts that survived for thousands of years.
Timbers from the Anglo-Saxon footbridge are joined by two human skulls, but possibly the most intriguing of the objects is a small piece of human neck vertebra.
Complete with cut marks, the evidence, Richard Knox explained, suggests some sort of human sacrifice.
A vertebra from an adult male. Note the mark that shows where his throat was probably cut.
"It’s either going to be something to do with de-fleshing or possibly a human sacrifice," he said, pointing out that there is evidence elsewhere of this kind of burial during the same period.
The vertebra was found, alongside other bones, in a peat deposit. Analysis at The British Museum and University of York concluded that before the bodies were disposed of the blood supply was cut off quickly, suggesting they were put to death.
After it closes at Charnwood Museum, the exhibition will go on show to Donington Le Heath Manor House from March 31, 2005.
