Monument record 7826/1 - Early/middle Iron Age settlement

A complex of Iron Age enclosures and ring ditches dating between the early and middle Iron Age, as well as associated pits, postholes and smaller ditches, were found during geophysical survey and subsequent trial trenching at Homestead Farm

{1} The evaluation recorded a complex of Iron Age enclosures and ring ditches plus associated pits, postholes and smaller ditches. North-east/south-west aligned parallel ditches probably represented drainage/boundary ditches to either side of a trackway measuring 2.25m in width. There were at least three rectilinear ditched enclosures associated with probable linear boundary ditches. There were curvilinear ditches, probably the remains of roundhouses, both within the enclosures and outside them.

Most of the pottery could only be broadly dated to the late prehistoric period, but those sherds that could be closely dated indicate that the assemblage probably dates in its entirety to the Early Iron Age (700 BC–400 BC) and Middle Iron Age (400 BC–100 BC). Of note was a group of 82 sherds from the fill of a pit representing a single Middle Iron Age jar featuring scoring and impressed fingertip decoration. Fragments of cremated bone from within the jar appeared to be of mammalian origin, though probably not human.

<1> Evans, D., 2015, Homestead Farm, Potterspury, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, March 2015 (Report). SNN110569.

<2> Horne, B (editor), 2016, South Midlands Archaeology (46), p. 32 (Journal). SNN111326.

<3> Cotswold Archaeology, 2022, Site Data from an Archaeological Evaluation at Homestead Farm, Potterspury, Northamptonshire 2014, https://doi.org/10.5284/1100065 (Digital archive). SNN114239.

Record last edited

Oct 20 2022 9:35AM