Monument record 1738/1/4 - Neolithic Avenue and late Neolithic/early Bronze Age henge, Stanwick

Neolithic avenue comprising two long rows od parallel ditches and hollows c60m long and a ring ditch of probable Early Bronze Age date at Stanwick. Excavated in 1992, the site was initially identified as a cropmark. The segmented ring ditch, circa 10 metres in diameter, comprised ten interconnecting ditch segments (or perhaps elongated pits). Two red deer antlers, both from the ditch segments, have been radiocarbon dated. The dates are 2032-1787 BC and 2028-1782 BC, both calibrated. The latter came from the bottom of the fill of one of the segments.

{2} A ring ditch of probable Early Bronze Age date at Stanwick. Excavated in 1992, the site was initially identified as a cropmark. S. Rault and J. Harding. 1999. Raunds prehistoric: project design for completion of analysis and dissemination.

{4} The Avenue consisted of two parallel ditches and hollows 60m long and 7-9m apart. Excavation was selective and concentrated on the south-west end. Features were shallow, at most 0.60m deep often less. The edges were difficult to define. Oak charcoal was abundant and the diverse charred plant remains included onion crouch grass tubers, hazelnut shell and a few possibly intrusive cereal grains. Other finds included indeterminate animal bone and few flint tools.
A small hengiform monument was built over the south-west end of the Avenue, which must by then have survived as a set of shallow silted hollows. Its continuous circuit was made up of eleven interconnected pits which all seem to have been cut at once. Two antler picks may have placed in the base of two segments when the monument was first created. Thereafter it appears to have been rapidly backfilled. Two cremation burials seem to have been incorporated during the course of backfilling and a third lay near the edge of the enclosure. Radiocarbon dates were obtained for both monuments.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, (unchecked) (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<2> Rault S.; Harding J., 1999, Raunds Prehistoric: Project Design for Completion of Analysis and Dissemination, (unchecked) (Project Design). SNN108326.

<3> NATIONAL MONUMENTS RECORD, 2012, NMR Monument Report, HOB UID 1252904 (unchecked) (Database). SNN108196.

<4> Harding, J. and Healy, F., 2008, The Raunds Area Project: A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire, p. 64-7 & 147 (Report). SNN106245.

<5> Harding, J. and Healy, F., 2011, The Raunds Area Project: A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire Volume 2 Supplementary Studies (Report). SNN108037.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 6:10PM