Editing Grantham (section)

==Prehistory==
Much of Grantham's early archaeology lies buried beneath the modern town, making it "difficult to unravel".<ref name="Lane2011-9"/> Early prehistoric hunter-gatherers visited the area. Scattered Stone Age tools have been found, the earliest being a [[Paleolithic|Palaeolithic]] axe on the Cherry Orchard Estate, dating between 40,000 and 150,000 years ago. The next earliest material consist of [[Mesolithic]] [[Stone tool|flints]] crafted 4,000 to 8,000 years ago and found round Gonerby Hill and the riverside in the south of the town. [[Neolithic]] people probably settled in the Grantham area for its proximity to the rivers and its fertile soils; material suggesting settlement in this period has been found at [[Great Ponton]]. Other scattered finds have been unearthed around the town. Remains of a Neolithic ritual site on the parish boundary between Harlaxton and Grantham are known from [[aerial photography]]. [[Bronze Age]] artefacts include pottery vessels, with human remains found in Little Gonerby, a [[Bell Beaker culture|Beaker]] pot, Beaker pottery sherds, [[Cremation|cinerary]] urns and a food vessel, and a later cemetery at Belton Lane, but there is little direct evidence of Bronze Age settlement in the area of the modern town. Little is known about it in the [[Iron Age]], though ditched enclosures and a field system of this date are known to lie off Gorse Lane.<ref>{{Harvnb |Lane |2011 |pp=11–16}}.</ref>

Various [[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]] coins and pottery finds have emerged in Grantham;<ref name="Honeybone15">{{Harvnb |Honeybone |1988 |p=15}}.</ref> a burial and pottery from the 2nd century AD were uncovered off Trent Road in 1981. Small settlements or farmsteads from the period have been discerned on the hills overlooking Grantham from the east, and another has been found in Barrowby. There were probably Romano-British farmsteads on the site of the modern town,<ref>{{Harvnb |Lane |2011 |pp=16–17}}.</ref> but the wet soils round the Mowbeck and flooding by the Witham probably made it hard for a larger settlement to grow there.<ref name="Honeybone15"/> Three kilometres to the south of the modern town, an important Roman site has been found at [[Saltersford]], a crossing of the River Witham near Little Ponton. Extensive finds and evidence of a significant Romano-British occupation have emerged in the vicinity since the 19th century; it has been tentatively identified by some scholars as ''[[Causennae]]'', mentioned in the [[Antonine Itinerary]], and sat at the place where River Witham was crossed by the [[Salter's Way]], a trade route connecting the salt-producing coastal and marshland regions with the Midlands. Salter's Way may also have crossed [[Ermine Street]] (now B6403) at [[Cold Harbour, Lincolnshire|Cold Harbour]], 4&nbsp;km south-east of Grantham. Saltersford may have been a small town with a market for local farmsteads and smaller settlements.<ref>{{Harvnb |Lane |2011 |pp=10, 17–20}}</ref><ref>For the distance from Grantham town centre to Cold Harbour, see [https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9029343,-0.640257,13.31z "52.9029343, −0.640257, 13z"], ''[[Google Maps]]''. Retrieved 18 December 2020.</ref>