Monument record 3550/1/6 - Bronze Age pit group, Grendon Quarry

A cluster of pits and other features of broadly Early Bronze Age date at Grendon, part of a complex of cropmarks excavated in 1974-5 in advance of gravel extraction. Within the excavated area, a total of 48 pits were uncovered, as well as two lengths of ditch which met eash other at right angles and appear to pre-date the pits. One of the ditches could be traced for some 84 metres on air photographs. They are presumed to have formed the corner of a field or other fenced area, one of them showing signs of having held timbers. A number of the pits contained material interpreted as deliberate deposits. One featured an articulated human lower limb minus the foot; another contained two crouched inhumations, and adult and a child, the latter face down beneath the former, also face down; a third contained a dog skull and some vertebrae. Two radicoarbon dates obtained from charcoal belong broadly to the Early Bronze Age. No spatial patterning was evident among the pits.

{1} Ditch E38 gave the impression of being a slot for a palisade rather than an open ditch, and it seems likely that the two ditches E27 and E38 form the corner of a fenced area pre-dating the pit group. A number of the pits appeared to contain deliberately deposited material. One contained fragments of human bone including a seemingly articulated lower limb with most of the foot missing and a rib fragment. Another contained a crouched child's burial at the base and an overlying adult inhumation, also crouched. There were no accompanying finds. Another pit contained a dog skull with articulated vertabra. Two radiocarbon dates of 1400 +/- 60 BC and 1450 +/-70 BC were obtained from charcoal.

{2} Excavations in this area revealed a roughly circular array of 50 round and six rectangular pits, cut across by late Iron Age or later ditches.

<1> Gibson A.; McCormick A., 1985, Archaeology at Grendon Quarry Part I: Neolithic and Bronze Age Sites Excavated in 1974-5, p.40-46 (Report). SNN59698.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 54 (site 4) (Series). SNN77380.

Record last edited

Apr 8 2022 3:17PM