ENN110215 - M1 Midway Junction 16, 2017 (Observation)

{1} Oxford Archaeology investigated five excavation areas and an area of watching brief in advance of construction of a business park adjacent to Junction 16 of the M1 motorway. Prehistoric remains included a Mesolithic flint scatter, possible Bronze Age -early Iron Age enclosures, and a middle iron Age settlement that consisted of at least seven roundhouses and was enclosed on at least two sides. A pit alignment was established during the middle Iron Age and appears to have remained open into the late Iron Age/early Roman period, when it formed the western boundary of ditched field system. During the second century AD the landscape was reorganised, presumably as part of the agricultural land surrounding a villa that is situated immediately to the north of the site. A complex of rectilinear and curvilinear enclosures was established close to the villa, slightling the earlier field system, and new fields were laid out on the opposite side of the outwash channel of a spring. Of particular significance were a rectangular, stone-founded building beside the channel, which may be a shrine or mausoleum, and an area dedicated to crop processing. The latter area comprised four corn-drying ovens, a threshing floor and three stone-lined tanks that may have been used for steeping grain as part of the malting process, providing evidence for the production of beer. This arrangment persisted until the end of the Roman period, one of the latest elements being the addition of an aisled building. Post-Roman activity was represented only by ridge and furrow cultivation, which was present throughout the site and the boundaries of the modern fields. Site Code: M1D17