Monument record 5813/0/1 - Early/middle Iron Age Pit Alignment, Upton

Pit alignment aligned along the contour of the river valley. A number of the pits have been excavated at various points.

{1} Two circular pits were uncovered. Pit 6 was 2m in diameter and 0.7m in depth and 13 sherds of ?Early Iron Age pottery were recovered from its fill. Pit 8 was 1.5m in diameter and 0.5m in depth; no finds were recovered from it. A third feature, which appeared at the north west edge of the trench, was not investigated but 2 Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age sherds were found on its surface.

{4} The possible continuation of the pit alignment excavated to the east was found during evaluation at Quinton House.

{7} A single pit, largely truncated by later medieval settlement, was part of the north east to south west aligned pit alignment previously revealed during excavations further to the east. Two further, irregular pits were uncovered in the evaluation trenches. To the south, further pits in the alignment appear to have been entirely truncated by medieval ditches.

{8} Pit alignment aligned north-east to south-west along the contour of the river valley. In a recorded length of 36m there were 13 pits, of which 12 were either sectioned or fully excavated. The pits were 2.00-2.60m in diameter, and between 0.30m and 0.8m apart, but with a regular spacing of 3.0m centre-to-centre. In plan the pits were irregularly sub-circular to sub-square in shape, but the surface plans were a product of prolonged erosion of the upper edges.
It would be expected that the construction of the alignment would have occurred in the early Iron Age, and there is a body of radiocarbon dates from pits alignments in the region spanning the range 800-500 cal BC. However, a sample of wood charcoal from the lower fill of pit 108 has been radiocarbon dated to the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, the early Middle Iron Age (400-200 cal BC, 95% confidence, 2270 +/- 40 BP, Beta-215489). This indicates that the pits were still substantially open at the beginning of the middle Iron Age, and either the origin of the alignment was quite late or the pits were open for around two centuries or more.

Foard-Colby A.; Walker C., 2010, Iron Age Settlement and Medieval Features at Quinton House School, Upton, Northampton (Article). SNN107491.

<1> Shaw M., 1990, Archaeological Evaluation At Upton, Northampton (South West District), (checked) (Report). SNN102374.

<2> Prentice J., 1999, An Archaeological Evaluation at Upton, Northampton (South-West District), April 1999, (unchecked) (Report). SNN63063.

<3> Maull A.; Masters P., 2001, Archaeological Investigations At Upton, Northampton South West District, (unchecked) (Report). SNN101224.

<4> Butler A.; Foard-Colby A., 2006, Geophysical Survey & Archaeological Evaluation at Quinton House School, Upton, Northamptonshire, p. 12 (Report). SNN105875.

<5> SHAW M., 1992, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49529.

<6> SHAW M., 1992, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49530.

<7> Foard-Colby A.; Walker C., 2007, Archaeological Excavation at Quinton House School, Upton, Northampton, January - February 2007, p.5 (unchecked) (Report). SNN105992.

<8> Walker C.; Maull A., 2010, Excavation of Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Upton, Northampton September - December, 2000, p. 8-9 (Report). SNN107504.

<9> Walker, C. & Maull, A., 2010, Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Upton, Northampton (Article). SNN107490.

Record last edited

Nov 19 2020 9:50AM