Monument record 2657/2 - Probable Late Romano-British Cemetery

Two burials were identified during the 1950s excavations at Weldon Villa. In 2006, a small cemetery was identified in a similar location, set against the northern boundary wall of the villa.

{1} Two inhumations side by side facing roughly south-east were found c.30 m north of the north wing of villa. This presumably indicates the area of a cemetery associated with the villa. Both burials were badly plough damaged so the rest of cemetery may have been ploughed out. Wooden coffins indicated by the iron nails found. They comprised a woman aged 25-30 and a child 9-10 years old. There was a C4th beaker with the child.

{2} Two burials were found to the east of the north wing.

{3} A small cemetery was aligned along the northern boundary wall of the villa, but did not easily fit in with any single phase of activity on the site, with a wide range of pottery recovered from the backfill of the graves, from the late Iron Age to late Romano-British, and also a change in orientation of the grave alignments at some point.
Twelve graves were identified within the access road, although the cemetery is likely to have extended further south-eastwards with two graves having been identified during the 1950s excavations of the villa being on the same linear alignment as those exposed during the current work.
Ten of the burials were aligned north-east to south-west, and two north-west to south-east. The lack of stratigraphic relationships between the graves does not permit determination of when this orientation changed. Three burials cut Furnaces 6 and 7 indicating that industrial use of this area had ceased prior to the creation of the cemetery area. The backfill of the graves contains industrial waste from this earlier land use, which might also explain the presence of the late Iron Age pottery.
The grave cuts were all rectangular and coffin nails were recovered from three of them. One grave was lined with limestone fragments creating a more cist-like appearance to the burial. Only two burials contained placed grave goods. A funnel-necked beaker of Nene Valley colour-coated ware was placed at the head end of Burial 9. A large sherd of shelly fabric from an everted rim jar was found with Burial 3.
The preservation of the skeletons was extremely poor, possibly due to soil conditions and the continual compression of the area under its use as a quarry haul road. Six burials were believed to be adult males, three adult females.

<1> Smith D.J.; Hird L.; Dix B., 1988-9, The Roman Villa at Great Weldon, Northamptonshire, p.23-67 (checked) (Article). SNN40244.

<2> 1954, The Journal of Roman Studies, p.93-95 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN27024.

<3> Hall R., 2008, Excavations at Priors Hall, Northamptonshire, 2006: An Iron Age and Romano-British Ironworking Complex, p.36-37 (checked) (Report). SNN106586.

Record last edited

Dec 13 2022 9:25AM