The Roman Ermine Street, the main route from London to the north, crosses with the older Stone Age track, the Icknield Way, at Royston.  This track runs from near Hunstanton in Norfolk and, following the chalk ridge, runs past  Stonehenge and Avebury to Lyme Regis.  Appropriately, therefore, the main part of the Museum's archaeological collection starts in the Stone Age, with locally found axes and flint arrow heads (see right).  It continues through the Bronze Age, with two burial urns, some axes and a torque, together with part of a bronzesmith's store of smelted bronze.

Left:
Some items earlier than the main part of the collection

Right
Bronze Age burial urn found on Therfield Heath

There are some items of late Iron Age pottery and a good and varied collection of mainly locally produced pottery from the Roman period.  In three of these pieces it has even been possible to identify the name of the potter.  There are two Samian ware pieces, one a mug and the other a plate.  One was made by Marti M and the other by Cricius, and a mortarium or bowl used for chopping and pounding food, was made by Lalaius, who had a small pottery just south of St Albans. The Collection also contains a Roman horseshoe found in Royston.   From the early Saxon immigration period there is a javelin head, a disc brooch, belt and buckle and a small brooch.

Above left:  Found in Roman graves in Kelshall

Above centre:  "Oxford" water jug found in Kelshall

Above right:  A Roman horseshoe found on Royston heath

Left:  Two sides of a coin from the time of Ethelred II the Unready, AD 991-997