Monument record 4611/0/9 - Prehistoric Pit Alignment Boundary

A late Bronze Age/early Iron Age pit alignment.

{2} Partially excavated in 2006.

{3} An east-west anomaly was identified, possibly a ditch truncated by the ridge and furrow cultivation.

{4} The natural ironstone was cut by three pits spaced in a line 1.5m and 2.2m apart. Of these the westernmost and easternmost pits were excavated. They were up to 1.75m in diameter x 0.66m deep, with steep sides and flat bases, with some erosion on the upper edges. Both were filled with the same homogeeous deposit which contained no finds. Thus the linear feature crossing the site was confirmed to be a pit alignment, continuing both to the east and west beyond Trench 2. Dating evidence is usually sparse for these feature types, some have demonstrated to be late Bronze Age/early Iron Age in date, possibly forming tribal boundaries.

{5} In the excavations of 2006, 2007 and 2014, a length of 199m of a pit alignment was examined, with 59 pits recorded. It lay on a relatively flat plateau, with the natural at the eastern end at 99.9m aOD and at the western end at 101.3m aOD, a rise of 1.4m in 199mm. The pit alignment follows a straight, if slightly wavering, line for its entire excavated length, and it has not been recorded beyond the excavated area. A straight line will intersect the majority of the pits, leaving four or five places where either the northern or southern edges of a couple of pits lay on or slightly beyond a straight line. The alignment comprised rectangular pits, mostly longer than they were wide. The average pit was rectangular, 1.93m long by 1.77m wide and 0.66m deep, with a squared flat base, 0.76m long by 0.69 wide, with at least 50% of all pit dimensions within +/-0.20m of these averages. All of the pits showed a simple sequence of natural silting, often with fairly homogeneous and slowly accumulating silts that were sometimes difficult to separate in excavation, so that in some instances only one or two context number were allocated even though the sequence of silting was likely to have been more complex than this. As is typical of pit alignments, finds of any description were scarce. Small quantities of late Bronze Age pottery were likely to have eroded into the pits as residual material. Two radiocarbon dates from wood charcoal were Bronze Age. Both of these dates must be regarded as coming from residual material, with the pit alignment, therefore, only broadly attributable to the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age, at sometime between 900-400BC.

{7} In 2023, PCAS undertook an archaeological evaluation that found the supposed continuation pit alignment. Little dating material was retrieved from the alignment during the previous excavations, but a programme of radiocarbon dating suggested a date in the early Iron Age

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<2> Field L.; Chapman A., Archaeological Excavation at Harlestone Quarry Near Northampton, October 2006, (unchecked) (Report). SNN105844.

<3> Fisher I., 2003, Geophysical Survey at Harlestone Quarry Extension, Northampton August 2003, p.3 (checked) (Report). SNN105273.

<4> Upson-Smith T.; Maull A., 2004, Archaeological Evaluation at Harlestone Quarry near Northampton October 2004, p.3 (checked) (Report). SNN105275.

<5> Chapman, A, Foard, A, & Clarke, J., 2015, Excavation of a Bronze Age and early Iron Age landscape at Harlestone Quarry, Northamptonshire 2007-2014, p. 24-32 (Report). SNN110518.

<6> Chapman, A, Clarke, J, and Foard, A, 2017, A Bronze Age and Early Iron Age landscape at Harlestone Quarry, Northampton, p. 37-67 (Article). SNN110992.

<7> E. Vecchi, 2023, EXTENSION TO HARLESTONE QUARRY, A428 HARLESTONE ROAD, NORTHAMPTON, NN7 4EJ: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION FINAL REPORT, https://doi.org/10.5284/1121147 (Report). SNN115792.

Record last edited

Sep 23 2024 11:48AM