While setting up a new water grid in Navenby, workers discovered an ancient sacrifice offering.

The earliest remains found during archaeological excavations as part of a massive project to build a new drinking water grid, SPA, across the East of England, were two red deer skeletons discovered in an infilled pit, thought to have been killed possibly as sacrifices, more than 4,000 years ago.

Archaeologists must evaluate the potential harm that groundworks for the new pipes could do to buried archaeological sites before the pipes for SPA are laid.

This work is completed using a straightforward procedure that includes geophysical surveying, digging trial trenches, and then performing targeted open area excavations in areas where earlier surveys have found significant archaeological relics.

The red deer skeletons were unearthed at Navenby alongside some bell-shaped pottery known as Beaker pottery, although there were no signs of butchery.

The Beaker People, a distinctive society whose members hail from the European continent, are responsible for creating this. A hundred years or so later, Britain started to notice the pots.

A small, rural hamlet made up of two roundhouses and five smaller post-built structures, possibly granary stores, arose on the site during the Iron Age, some thousand years later.

Maintenance and realignments indicate that this small village has been occupied for a long period and has undergone some redesign.

The Roman era appears to have taken center stage, with the only Roman activity at the site consisting of three cremations and a human burial, possibly indicating ancillary funerary activity on the outskirts of a settlement.

"These fascinating and significant finds are helping to shape our understanding of what life was like in Lincolnshire many thousands of years ago," said Jonathan Hutchings of the archaeology team assisting in the delivery of the new water system.

"People from the Early Bronze Age may have sacrificed or left an offering with the red deer.

As an alternative, it might have served as a form of "funeral" for the deer or a means of deterring or attracting ghosts. While it's important to have water pipes and pumps, our work also provides communities with a window into the past, allowing them to learn about their history, legacy, and origins. This helps us better comprehend the nature of our country.

One of the UK's largest infrastructure projects is the SPA water grid. Once finished, hundreds of kilometers of underground, interconnected pipelines would transport millions of liters of water every day from wetter to drier regions, from Elsham in North Lincolnshire to Essex and Suffolk.

However, the accountable water provider, Anglian Water, is dedicated to leave a lasting social and environmental legacy along the route.

In addition, fresh trees were planted, dozens of boxes for bats, owls, and dormice were built, and a life-saving defibrillator was given to 11 primary schools.