Monument record 7070/0/1 - Neolithic Long Barrow, south of Broamenthill Spinney

The northernmost of two long barrows, both of the Cotswold-Severn type. Radiocarbon dates suggest that this barrow was a later addition.

{2} Archaeological investigation was undertaken as part of a programme of evaluation prior to the construction of the Flore-Weedon Bypass. Subsequent to this evaluation, the route of the road was altered in order to preserve the long barrows in situ.

The ditch on the northern side of the long barrow was 5.9m wide and 0.58m deep with steep uneven sides and a broad flattish base, interrupted by a small hollow. Pinkish-grey silty clay mound material lay against the inner (southern) side of the long barrow ditch. These early deposits contained high quantities of limestone as large flat slabs, up to 280mm in size, and also with dense concentrations of shattered smaller pieces throughout. A total 120+ sherds (508g) of pottery from fill 109 is early Neolithic in date, and is consistent in date with an assemblage of fifty worked flints from the fill above it. Later deposits became mixed with increasing quantities of soft reddish brown silty clay loam soils, whilst the stone content decreased rapidly in both the size of particles and their frequency towards the top of the ditch. The latest fill produced seven sherds of Bronze Age pottery, indicating the extended duration before which the ditches were completely filled.

On the southern side of the long barrow mound, ditch 122 was 4.78m wide by 0.47m deep, parallel to the northern ditch. The distance between the ditches, the footprint of the mound at this point, was 8.8m. There was a similar sequence of deposits in the northern ditch. The ditch had fairly steep uneven sides and a broad flattish base. A comparable sequence of fills lay on the inside (northern) edge of the ditch, where pinkish-grey silty clay and limestone slabs, up to 300mm in size, had been deposited in the ditch. A minor difference occurred in that the initial deposits were largely reddish-brown silty clay. These deposits were devoid of artefacts and contained no seeds. The fills were then followed by deposits with high quantities of limestone. No finds were recovered from these earlier deposits, but as the frequency of limestone became less and deposits became mixed with increasing quantities of soft reddish-brown-silty clay loam soils worked flint and animal bone was also found.

A depositional event occurred in both ditches late in the sequence of the limestone rich deposits and before the later loamy fills began accumulating. A thin darker bluish-grey band of silty sandy loam was observed, which was the result of the discolouration produced by charcoal. Samples taken on the north side of the long barrow, contained a few charred wheat grains alongside the early Neolithic pottery.

{3} Radiocarbon dates for the northern long barrow produced a date later in the early Neolithic than the southern long barrow. Animal bone from the northern ditch produced a date of 3520-3370 cal BC, 95% confidence and another fragment from the southern ditch produced a closely comparable date of 3530-3400 cal BC. These dates indicate that the northern long barrow was a later addition to the funerary site, but was subject to rapid degradation, perhaps within as little as a century.

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

<2> Brown, J., 2014, Archaeological geophysical survey and trial trench evaluation of the A45 Northampton to Daventry Link Road, Northamptonshire, 2013-2014, checked (Report). SNN110061.

<3> Brown, J., 2019, The Brumut Hills: Two Neolithic long barrows near Flore (Article). SNN111724.

Record last edited

Sep 17 2021 3:01PM