Monument record 9828 - Iron Age & Romano-British Settlement, Mawsley

Archaeological investigation was undertaken prior to the construction of a housing development. The earliest activity was a probable early Iron Age pit alignment. There was a subsequent phase of open settlement, consisting of a single roundhouse. In the late Iron Age a small farmstead comprising two enclosures was established. The enclosure system was reorganised a number of times from the early to middle 1st century AD until the mid-2nd century AD when it was backfilled. The upper fill of the enclosure ditch contained a special ‘closure’ deposit that incorporated later 2nd-century jewellery and weaponry, including a silver wheel-shaped clasp from a necklace, paralleled in the Snettisham hoard, alongside iron weapons. In the later Roman period,there appears to have been a shift in settlement with new ditch systems laid out and a trackway crossing the former settlement.

{2} Excavation identified an area of Iron Age and C1st to C2nd AD date settlement which was previously identified by geophysical survey. A later phase of settlement may have extended to the C4th AD.

{3} Numerous ditch and pit type responses recorded in Area 5A reflect a complex of enclosures and related ditches generally concentrated towards the western site boundary. A series of similar but weaker responses were also recorded to the east. The responses clearly continue to the east and west beyond the survey area.

{4} Within Area 6A a number of ditch type anomalies were detected which appear to form two sub-rectangular enclosures. Other curvilinear anomalies wihtin may indicate internal divisions or different phases of activity. The anomalies represent the continuation of the enclosure system identified previously in Area 5A.

{5} Archaeological excavation identified a settlement continuously occupied from the Iron Age to middle Roman period. The earliest activity was a 40m length of pit alignment, aligned NW-SE and presumed to extend beyond the excavated in both directions. The 12 regularly-spaced pits were square with rounded corners. The only material find from the pit fills was a flint core indicative of late Bronze Age flint technology. The final silting of some of the pits contained a few sherds of Roman pottery dating to the mid-late 1st century AD, indicating that some of the pits were still visible as earthwork depressions at that time. Located to the north of the pit alignment on a prominent ridge was a later phase of occupation. It comprised a ring gully 12.5m in diameter, larger than the others recorded on site, but of a similar size to middle Iron Age roundhouses recorded at the neighbouring settlement at Mawsley dating between the 3rd and 1st century BC. A small assemblage of scored pottery and animal bone was recovered from the north terminal.

A small farmstead comprising two enclosures was established in the late Iron Age (1st century BC). The north enclosure was the more substantial of the two. It was originally sub-square in plan, 50m by 60m. However, only the SW side of the enclosure survived in its original form with ditches generally up to 1.75m wide. It overlay the pit alignment. There was no indication of any buildings in this enclosure. The smaller enclosure was at least 42m long and had a roundhouse within it.

The roundhouse was demarcated by a ring gully 9.8m in diameter with an entrance to the SE, but the gully terminals were truncated; a possible doorway was suggested by two postholes. Within the structure were four postholes. Scored ware pottery was recovered from the gully and posthole fills and one of the postholes also contained some Belgic-style pottery possibly suggesting some overlap into the early-middle 1st century AD, if this feature was contemporary with the building.

Phase 2: The enclosure system was reorganised in the early to middle 1st century AD. The earlier enclosures were infilled and remodelled to incorporate an annexe.
The pottery from the ditch fills indicates that the enclosure in this form was established and in use during the early to mid-1st century AD, with groups of Belgic-style material, but also Roman pottery of mid-late 1st century and earlier-mid 2nd century date, suggesting that the ditches were kept clean and regularly recut. The NW part of the annexe contained the partial remains of a possible roundhouse, comprising a short length of curvilinear gully together with adjacent posthole and two pits, all of which contained Belgic-style pottery. The south part of the annexe also contained a roundhouse demarked by an annular gully 7.7m in diameter and up to 0.18m deep, with a possible SE entrance. It contained a single internal posthole and an associated external pit, both of which contained Belgic pottery. The main enclosure remained largely empty except for a small semi-circular gully, 6.3m in diameter and 0.15m deep, and adjacent pit that, together with a pit towards the centre of the enclosure, contained Belgic-style pottery. It is uncertain whether the gully was the truncated remains of a roundhouse or the remains of a stock pen.


Phase 3: During the early Roman period, modifications were confined to the south part of the annexe, which was sub-divided, and to the NE of the complex, where a new enclosure was constructed. Neither the enclosure nor the associated ditches were long-lived, having single cuts containing pottery of the mid-late 1st century AD, and they perhaps provided a temporary solution to stock management. The south part of the annexe in this phase contained two poorly preserved round houses within a group of associated pits and postholes perhaps within a small surrounding enclosure suggested by lengths of curving ditch. One of the round houses comprised a discontinuous annular gully measuring c7m in diameter and up to 0.28m deep with a SE entrance with no internal features. The other also comprised a discontinuous annular gully c8.5m in diameter and up to 0.25m deep with a NW entrance. The gully only contained a single undated pit.

Phase 4: Towards the end of the 1st century AD the settlement took the form of a single rectilinear enclosure, 86m by 66m, created through the merging of Enclosure 1 and its annexe into a single entity. The pottery recovered from the ditches predominantly dated from the late 1st to mid-2nd century with little evidence of residuality from the earlier pahses of activity. The eastern entrance of the enclosure was maintained. A burial of an adult male was found in the original northern corner of the enclosure at the junction of two ditches. No separate grave cut was apparent, suggesting that the burial was contemporary with the backfilling of this phase of the enclosure, rather than a later insertion. It was radiocarbon dated to between 70-230 calAD (94.4% confidence). A stone round house was constructed at some point in the late 1st - early 2nd century. It survived as an ironstone foundation with an external diameter of 9.4m and internal diameter of 8.25m giving an internal area of 52m squared. Two courses of pitched ironstone rubble were preserved up to 0.37m deep; the small size of fragments suggests the foundation carried an organic superstructure (possibly cob walling). The building had an entrance to the SE and six postholes possibly suggested a porch. Lines of postholes inside suggested internal divisions. Inside there were two ovens. One next to entrance was rebuilt and modified on two occasions incorporating a stone chamber. The small number of pottery sherds recovered from the successive ovens suggested a date in the 2nd century. Another oven was key-hole shaped and is reminiscent of a corn-drier, although only charcoal was recovered from the feature.

There were two wells that were broadly contemporary with the stone roundhouse. Well 1 lay 5m to the north-east. It was round and nearly 2m in diameter and over 3.2m deep. Pottery from the upper fills suggested that it went out of in the later 1st or early 2nd century and was capped by a layer of ironstone rubble. Well 2, which lay 25m to the south-east of the stone roundhouse, was 3.7m long and 2.4m wide and more than 3.2m deep. One of the fills comprised a dump of charred cereal remains mainly of spelt with smaller amounts of chaff. Pottery from the lowest excavated fills dated to the mid-2nd century and from the upper fills to the later 2nd century. A possible drinking trough lay in the centre of the site- a rectangular, flat-bottomed pit, containing late 1st nad 2nd century pottery.

Close to the eastern entrance were two discontinuous lengths of ironstone wall. A single sherd of 2nd century pottery was recovered from the wall construction. To the south-east of the wall was a spread of ironstone (4.5m long and 3.0m wide) that had been pressed into the natural, with a group of heat-affected stones in the centre. The remains were interpreted as an external working area rather than an actual building.

Phase 5: The enclosure ditches had been largely backfilled during the mid-2nd century, except on the south side close to the stone founded round house. The shallow remnants of the south-western enclosure ditch were levelled with a distinctly different material to earlier silting and contained a mixed assemblage of late 1st to late 2nd century pottery. In one 7m long section there was a remarkable group of artefacts recovered in three groups, each about a metre across. The first group comprised a silver wheel clasp and chain from a necklace, two small copper alloy busts and a spearhead; the second a spearhead, harpoon and an iron nail cleaner; the third an enamelled plate brooch in the shape of a fish, an iron sheet fragment and another iron spearhead. The group also contained two small groups of oyster shell (not seen elsewhere on site). Three adjacent, but undated pits, contained articulated bone groups from the burial of two sheep/goats and a pig and may also have been related. Coins from this levelling layer included a silver denarius of Faustina dating to AD175-6.

A trackway, aligned north-west to south-east with flanking ditches set 3.2m apart, cut across the former enclosures. A substantial ironstone causeway was constructed across the W enclosure ditch to facilitate the continuation of the trackway. The actual dating of the trackway is uncertain, fills of the ditches produced early-mid 2nd century pottery but two later Roman coins dated to AD306-313 and AD 341-346 were also recovered, suggesting it could have been in use into the 4th century.

Outside the enclosure, two parallel ditches skirted the SW perimeter, the outer one continuing north for at least another 20m according to the geophysical survey. Pottery dating to the late 1st to 2nd centuries and two later Roman oins dating to AD275-6 and AD364-78 were recovered from the upper fill of the ditch. The inner ditch contained later Roman pottery and a late Roman bone hairpin.
Pairs of small parallel gullies were recorded in the northern part of the excavation area and further examples were recorded to the east on a perpendicular alignment. May represent later Roman agricultural features but only a single sherd of Roman pottery was recovered.

<1> Rees G., 2008, Enclosure Boundaries and Settlement Individuality in The Iron Age, (unchecked) (Article). SNN106040.

<2> Young J., 2000, Results of An Archaeological Evaluation Excavation of the Northern Part of Mawsley New Village,Cransley, Northamptonshire, p.9-10 (checked) (Report). SNN102784.

<3> Nicholls J., 1999, Mawsley New Village, Northamptonshire, p.4 (checked) (Report). SNN100532.

<4> Stephens C., 1999, Mawsley New Village II, Northamptonshire, p.2 (checked) (Report). SNN100533.

<5> Harvey, J., 2012, Archaeological Excavations within Housing Area 6C/D, Mawsley New Village, Great Cransley, Kettering, Northamptonshire (SP 811 764), unchecked (Report). SNN110232.

<6> Harvey, J., 2015, An Iron Age and Roman settlement at Mawsley New Village, Great Cransley, Kettering, p. 76-78 (Article). SNN110233.

Record last edited

Dec 8 2021 4:39PM