Monument record 2580/0/9 - Early Saxon sunken featured buildings

The remains of two buildings were identified during excavation in 2017. The articulated remains of an adult male were found in the base of one

{1} Two sunken featured buildings (SFB) (Grübenhauser) were identified during the excavation. Both sunken featured buildings had suffered a degree of truncation as a result of later agricultural ploughing. Pottery recovered from the fill of the SFBs, likely to derive from midden material, suggests an early to middle Anglo-Saxon date with the pottery from SFB2 probably dating from second half of the 5th century AD. Six objects of worked bone and antler were recovered from SFB 1 and have been dated to the early Anglo-Saxon period, with a date c AD 425-525 likely. This early date for these artefacts suggests the SFBs went out of use c AD 500.

The remains of an adult male individual had been placed in the base of one of the SFBs, after the destruction of the building but before the main pit had been backfilled. No artefacts were found with the remains of the individual, though the upper part of the skeleton had been lost to modern ploughing. Whilst the precise stratigraphic relationship between the skeleton and the Anglo-Saxon SFB remains unclear, it appears likely that they were broadly contemporary.

<1> Chinnock C., 2017, Archaeological excavation on land at Overstone Leys (Phase 1), Northampton, Northamptonshire, November 2016 (Report). SNN110783.

<2> Crank, N. (Editor), 2018, South Midlands Archaeology (48), p. 66 (Journal). SNN111393.

Record last edited

Mar 15 2019 1:47PM