Monument record 5390/0/4 - Neolithic Turf Mound, West Cotton

An oval or sub-rectangular mound of probable Neolithic date, one of a complex of monuments investigated as part of the Raunds area project. The mound was made up of turf and topsoil. It survived to a height of 0.50 metres, and may originally have measured circa 30 metres by 20 metres. Two parallel gullies circa 10 metres apart and 15 metres long, aligned southwest-northeast, were subsequently cut into the top of the mound. Their fills include quantities of burnt material and evidence for upright stakes, which may have been burnt in situ. These stake fences thus appear to have defined a semi-enclosed area on top of the mound, sharing an alignment with the nearby long enclosure (SP 97 SE 84). Finds associated with the mound suggest a later Neolithic/earlier Bronze Age date. A probable tree-hollow contianing flints (including two leaf-shaped arrowheads) pre-dated the mound. Some Beaker sherds were found on top of the mound, and also within a pit cut into the mound. This activity is believed to be contemporary a second phase of stake fences. At some stage, the southern part of the mound was cut by the digging of a circular ditch. This has been interpreted in some interim reports as a round barrow (designated "Barrow 2"), comprising a simple turf and topsoil mound. The ditch encloses an area circa 21 metres in diameter.

{1} Late neolithic/early Bronze Age activity; the ditch of a second barrow cut through a circular turf mound to its north; the mound was 19m in diameter.

{5} Turf mound, standing to a maximum height of 0.5m, ovoid in shape. When excavated this feature had no surrounding ditch and no features under the mound but was earlier than Barrow 2. Internally the mound followed a similiar form to the long mound with parallel gullies filled with burnt material possibly formerly a light weight fence.

{6} Much of the monument was recorded in salvage conditions; the only fully excavated area was on the quarry edge taking in the surviving north-east end of the mound and short length of ditch enclosing the southern half of the mound. A full understanding of the monument's development is not possible. The Turf Mound comprised a slightly elongated, unditched mound built early in the fourth millennium, onto the southern tail of which a later ditched, subcircular mound was was built in the third millennium. Fences were built, and burnt, in two gullies cut into the original north mound. Both mounds were of turf or turf and topsoil construction. A probable tree-hollow, containing a flint scatter including two leaf arrowheads, predated the construction of the north mound by an unknown margin. A pit containing a sherd of Grooved Ware or Beaker and a red deer antler underlay the south mound. There was no evidence that this pit had contained an inhumation burial. A scatter of Beaker sherds on top of the north mound and in a pit cut into it reflect activity perhaps contemporary with the construction of the south mound.

Four samples from the recut of the eastern gully were radiocarbon dated. The consistency of the measurements suggests that the age of the second fence in the eastern gully is likely to be close to its estimated date of 3750-3620 cal BC at 77% probability or 3600-3520 cal BC at 18% probability. The intervals between the construction of the mound and the cutting of the two successive pairs of gullies can only be guessed at. Even if they were negligible, the northern part of the Turf mound must have been one of the earliest monuments in the area.

<1> Windell D., 1988, West Cotton Excavations, (checked) (Interim Note). SNN39521.

<2> 1993, SMR REPORT FORM, (unchecked) (Note). SNN48776.

<3> Windell D., West Cotton, Raunds: The Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Ritual Focus, (unchecked) (Report). SNN55619.

<4> Windell D., RAUNDS, WILLOW BROOK 1987-88: SUMMARY, (unchecked) (Report). SNN60152.

<5> Windell D.; Chapman A.; Woodiwiss J., 1990, From Barrows to Bypass: Excavations at West Cotton, Raunds, Northamptonshire, 1985-1989, (unchecked) (Report). SNN62621.

<6> Harding, J. and Healy, F., 2008, The Raunds Area Project: A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire, p. 67-73 (Report). SNN106245.

<7> Harding, J. and Healy, F., 2011, The Raunds Area Project: A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire Volume 2 Supplementary Studies, p. 44-65 (Report). SNN108037.

<8> Windell D.; Chapman A.; Woodiwiss J., 1990, From Barrows to Bypass: Excavations at West Cotton, Raunds, Northamptonshire, 1985-1989 (Report). SNN62621.

<9> Gibson, A. (Ed.), 1989, Midlands Prehistory: Some Recent and Current Researches Into the Prehistory of Central England, p. 85-94 (Series). SNN106973.

<10> Rault S.; Harding J., 1999, Raunds Prehistoric: Project Design for Completion of Analysis and Dissemination (Project Design). SNN108326.

<11> Historic England, West Cotton (Photographs) (Archive). SNN116420.

Record last edited

Jun 25 2024 10:16AM