SNN105441 - Archaeological watching brief at Earls Barton Quarry (southern extension) Northamptonshire May 2003-January 2005

An archaeological wathcing brief was carried out at the southern extension at Earls Barton quarry. A ring ditch enclosure, 8m in diameter, is dated to the early Bronze Age by food vessel sherds from the ditch, suggesting that this was a funerary monument forming an outlier to the well known Grendon complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. The ring ditch lay on a gravel island between two paleochannels. An undated cremation deposit to the east of the paleochannel may have been directly related to the adjacent Grendon barrows. A pit excavated in the evaluation may have dated to the Iron Age. A medieval track was also recorded.