Monument record 9514/0/13 - Iron Age boundary ditch

{1} A boundary ditch running north west – south east. Almost 2.5m across at its widest, it narrowed as it moved westwards. One of its fills had the appearance of hearth cleanings. Early Iron Age pottery was recovered from the ditch, but it cut the enclosure ditches, making it the latest feature on the site. The contradiction between the stratigraphic sequence and the pottery dating could be explained by the pottery being residual, or that there was a deeper early ditch which terminated to the east of the enclosures, with only a shallower late recutting extending west and post dating the enclosures. If this is true then it might suggest that this ditch and the ditch seen further to the west in the watching brief are part of a single and quite long lived linear boundary system.

{2} This article is later than source {1} and interprets the ditch as the earliest feature on the site: "the ditch may have been cut by the two enclosures but the evidence is equivocal since their junction was confused due to the number of featues present."

<1> Parry S. ; Atkins R. ; Masters P., 1999, Archaeological Investigation: Sywell Areodrome, Northamptonshire, Stage 2: April - May 1996, p.7 (checked) (Report). SNN100027.

<2> Atkins R, Parry S, Holmes M, and Meadows I., 2001, Excavations of Iron Age Settlements at Sywell Aerodrome (1996) and at Ecton (1992-3) Northamptonshire, 29/49 (checked) (Article). SNN103932.

<3> Chapman A., 1996-97, Archaeology in Northamptonshire 1996-7, 27/215 (Checked) (Notes). SNN104580.

<4> 1997, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter, 27/40 (checked) (Journal). SNN100581.

Record last edited

Dec 2 2013 11:27AM