8500-4000 BC Mesolithic

In the Early Mesolithic, eastern England was connected to the now submerged north-west European plain. As sea-levels rose, the land available would have diminished dramatically. Much of the evidence for how people lived during the Mesolithic period in eastern England comes from parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. The area around Lakenheath and Mildenhall in Suffolk is particularly rich, with a high concentration of sites. Many of the sites have been discovered as surface scatters of flint tools on the sandy Breckland soils.

Less is known about the Cambridgeshire area during the Mesolithic. Because peat has developed in the Fens since the Mesolithic, much of the evidence is deeply buried. At the site of Shippea Hill, for example, evidence of Mesolithic occupation was found under almost five metres of peat and clay. Here people lived on the edge of a wetland area, near a river in a wooded landscape of hazel and pine trees. Mesolithic material is also known from the fen-edge just north of Cambridge. This would have been a rich environment, with plenty of food sources for the people who lived there.