Monument record 7218/1 - Early and middle Iron Age Settlement, south-west of Great Houghton

Archaeological excavation within the corridor of an Anglian Water pipeline identified an area of dense Iron Age settlement. The earliest activity, probably dating to c400 BC, probably comprised unenclosed posthole and pit groups. Subsequently, a sub-rectangular enclosure was constructed. It contained numerous pits and in one was an adult inhumation with a lead alloy neck ring or torc radiocarbon dated to the early 4th century BC. To the east was a roundhouse ring ditch outside a small oval enclosure. The settlement was abandoned in the early 1st century.

{2} A corridor 400m long by 15m wide along part of an Anglian Water pipeline revealed an extensive area of early-middle Iron Age settlement. Scattered activity comprising unenclosed pit groups and a 'working hollow' lay on the hill slopes to the west. Pottery from the westernmost group of pits contained no later forms, so can be dated to the early Iron Age. Regular pits close to the working hollow were dated to the middle Iron Age,and one contained a dog burial.

Two enclosures and a roundhouse occupied a more restricted zone.

The western, sub-rectangular, enclosure had been partially truncated by a modern quarry pit but was 12m wide and in excess of 15m long. There were two distinct phases of ditch. The later use of the enclosure dated to the middle Iron Age, while pits inside it dated to the early Iron Age, including one with a burial of an adult woman.

The burial pit was 1.55m in diameter and 0.5m deep, with near vertical sides and a flat bottom. The fill consisted of grey brown clay with small inclusions and fragments of limestone. There were some patches of contaminated charcoal at the level of the burial. The burial had been placed upon 0.2m of fill.
The burial lay face down with the top of the skull tight against the side of the pit, it was aligned NW to SE (head end). The arms were folded under the torso and they crossed just above the wrists, and the hands lay under the face. The skeleton lay slightly on its right side with the legs tightly contracted. The contraction of the legs suggests the body was trussed in this position, the arrangement of the arms may also suggest the arms were bound.
The skeleton was that of a woman 30-40 years of age and 1.56m tall. She had a hypoplastic
hamulus or, a reduced hook on the hamate wrist bone, a condition that occurs in only 1.4% of the modern population. The appearance of the same condition in one of the burials in the Saxon cemetery suggests a direct genetic link between two populations separated by over 1000 years. The A torc or ring had been placed around the neck, comprising of two square sectioned twisted rods of lead alloy. They both had decorated circular sectioned terminals at one end, while the opposed terminals were respectively perforated and notched to retain a binding, which had not survived.

On the higher more level ground at the eastern end of the site there was an oval enclosure. The enclosure was defined by a broad ditch measuring 17m by 12.5m. The feature was elongated NW-SE and had an entrance on the E side. The sequence of recutting at the entrance indicates that there were at least four phases of development. Quantities of pottery were recovered from the later ditch terminals, the majority from the final fill. These assemblages included residual early Iron Age material, the presence of a single sherd of Belgic ware and other well fired wares suggests that the filling of the ditch with stone occurred in the late Iron Age. The later fills of both ditch terminals also contained animal bone.

Half of a roundhouse ditch lay within the pipeline corridor immediately to the east of the enclosure. It enclosed an area 11.5m x 3.7m wide, the ditch opening immediately south of east. The ditch terminals flanking the entrance were steep sided slots, the fills of which contained frequent burnt cobbles and burnt fragments of limestone to the south west the ditch was v shapedup to 0.8m x 0.3m.At the centre of the area there was a shallow bowl shaped hollow up to 0.2m deep. The hollow was filled with three layers of flat laid fragments of unburnt limestone.
The pottery recovered from the ring ditch was largely undated, one sherd of scored ware from the northern terminal suggests a middle Iron Age date.

The easternmost feature was a linear gully forming an L-shaped structure. The western arm was 0.5m wide x 0.2m deep, with a rounded terminal to the south-east. It was filled with grey brown clay and the upper part of this fill contained some burnt clay, and frequent pieces of a light cindery slag.
A near complete jar dating to the middle Iron Age had been deposited in the fill.

{5} Geophysics 200m east of the site revealed a number of potential anomalies but subsequent trial trenching showed these to be either natural or recent field drains.

<1> Chapman A., 1996-7, Outer Northampton, Great Houghton/Brackmills, (unchecked) (Note). SNN104086.

<2> 1997, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter (27), p.39 (checked) (Journal). SNN100581.

<3> Chapman A., 2001, Excavation Of An Iron Age Settlement And A Middle Saxon Cemetery At Great Houghton, Northampton, 1996, p.9 (checked) (Report). SNN101158.

<3> Chapman A., 2001, Excavation Of An Iron Age Settlement And A Middle Saxon Cemetery At Great Houghton, Northampton, 1996, p.9 (checked) (Article). SNN115049.

<4> Rees G., 2008, Enclosure Boundaries and Settlement Individuality in The Iron Age, (unchecked) (Article). SNN106040.

<5> Andrews P.; Farwell D.; Hutcheson A.; Ellis C.; Edmunds R., 1996, Brackmills Extension and Employment Sites: Desktop Study and Archaeological Field Evaluation, 1996, p.16 (checked) (Report). SNN73975.

Record last edited

Jul 10 2023 3:02PM