Monument record 9054/0/1 - Early Bronze Age, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon landscapes, Apex Park

The site was initially identified by geophysical survey and investigated by trial trench evaluation and subsequent excavation. The earliest feature comprised a segmented circular enclosure, 25m in diameter, subsequently recut as an almost continuous ring with a narrow eastern entrance. It produced no artefacts but the recut is radiocarbon dated towards the end of the early Bronze Age. A large polygonal enclosure and a rectilinear field system probably date to the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age and a pit alignment respected and terminated adjacent to the enclosure. On lower land to the north a middle Iron Age open settlement, c450-250BC, a small family farmstead, comprised at least two and possibly four roundhouse ring ditches, several four-post structures and both smaller pits and some larger storage pits set beside a linear boundary ditch with a transverse boundary to the south. There was a possible Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured building.

{1} Geophysical survey detected a positive curvilinear anomaly with a projected diameter of c 20m probably part of the circuit of a ring ditch. If this feature is indeed a ring ditch, then its size would be most consistent with a round barrow of early Bronze Age date. The survey detected two very weak annular anomalies which only just stand out against the background noise in the data; with diameters of c 12m and c 8m they fall within the normal size range of prehistoric roundhouses. A positive curvilinear anomaly forming a slightly irregular arc with a projected diameter of c 60m. This is likely to represent the eastern half of a sub-circular ditched enclosure. At the southern edge of the survey area there is an irregular chain of small discrete positive anomalies which is very likely to represent a pit alignment. It runs roughly north-south and appears to continue through an area surveyed by GSB before coming to an end close to the western side of the sub-circular enclosure. Pit alignments such as this usually date from the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age and are thought to have served the same function as boundary ditches.

{2} Trial trench excavation was undertaken in 2015. Little further information about the northernmost enclosure, identified in Trench 33, was gained during the evaluation. It is still unknown whether the feature is a complete circle or has an entranceway, as indicated by the geophysical survey. A possible pit alignment noted on the geophysical survey was identified in Trench 18 only. It comprised two large pits. The pits were located less than 8m from the west end of Trench 18. Neither was fully exposed in the trench but appeared to be either oval or sub-circular in plan. They had uneven, V-shaped profiles and were between 1.7m and 2m wide by 0.48m to 0.68m deep.

A second possible pit alignment was identified in Trench 18, close to the alignment described above. It comprised three sub-circular pits and had a south-east to north-west curvilinear trend. No finds were recovered.

The two circular anomalies detected by the geophysical survey were targeted by Trench 27. Only one of these was identified and comprised two segments of curvilinear ditch located at the north-east end of the trench, approximately 8m in diameter. A westfacing entrance was identified. The enclosure is therefore unlikely to be a roundhouse, other examples of which have, more typically, an east-facing entrance. Iron Age pottery and two pieces of slag were recovered from the small enclosure, and whilst only present in small quantities, could indicate an industrial process such as smithing was taking place nearby.

The large, amorphous anomaly targeted in Trench 26 was found to consist of a cluster of intercutting pits and ditches. None of these features contained any dateable material except ditch [2614], from which several fragments of fired clay were recovered. The fragments are from a triangular loomweight and provide small-scale evidence for the occupation of this area.

{3} Excavation was undertaken at Apex Park in 2015. The earliest phase of activity was during the middle Bronze Age with the construction of a segmented enclosure in the north-eastern part of the site. During the later Bronze Age or early Iron Age a large rectilinear enclosure was constructed. To the south there was a pit alignment with a large polygonal enclosure at its north end. A rectilinear field system was also laid out.
Segmented enclosure probably constructed during the middle Bronze Age, formed of four sections of curvilinear ditch, between 15.2m and 23.3m long. No dating evidence was recovered from the ditches. The ditches were later recut to form an almost complete circuit although a small entrance on the east side was retained.
The later Bronze Age enclosure was a five-sided polygon measuring c 66m north-west to south-east and 81m north-east to south-west with an entrance in the south-eastern corner. Two pits within the enclosure. No dating evidence. The pit alignment comprised 40 pits extending beyond the excavation area to the south, but terminating at the north adjacent to the polygonal enclosure. Finds were scarce- seven sherds of pottery dating to the early Iron Age were found, all abraded and from the upper fills. Five fragments of worked flint were also found.
The later Bronze Age land divisions shifts to the south in the early Iron Age with the establishment of a more substantial enclosure and evidence of grain processing, with two ring ditches, six four-post structures and three shelters. A further small ring ditch, 4.5m in diameter, may have been a hay rick. Within the larger ring ditch were a number of pits and postholes from which finds included a saddle quern fragment, rubbing stone and early middle Iron Age pottery.
A single possible sunken-featured building was identified, although the two postholes within the pit were both at the same end. No finds were recovered.

{6} A moderate quantity of charcoal, not identified to species, was recovered in the homogenous secondary fill of the segmented enclosure and subjected to radiocarbon dating. It produced a date in the later Early Bronze Age, 1680-1520 cal BC refining the provisional date assigned to the enclosure in the client report.

<1> Walford, J., 2015, Archaeological geophysical survey at Apex Park, Daventry, Northamptonshire, April 2015, p. 3-4 (Report). SNN110476.

<2> Egan, S. & Muldowney, M., 2015, Archaeological evaluation on land at Apex Park, Daventry, Northamptonshire May 2015, p. 6 (Report). SNN110475.

<3> Markus S., 2016, Archaeological excavation, recording and analysis at Apex Park, Daventry, Northamptonshire, July to October 2015 (Report). SNN111044.

<4> Horne, B (editor), 2016, South Midlands Archaeology (46), p. 40 (Journal). SNN111326.

<5> Crank, N. (Editor), 2017, South Midlands Archaeology (47), p. 40 (Journal). SNN111362.

<6> Markus, S. and Morris, S., 2019, Early Bronze Age, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon landscapes at Apex Park, Daventry, p. 47-75 (Article). SNN111726.

Record last edited

Jul 10 2023 1:42PM