SNN107903 - Archaeological evaluation on land at Overstone Leys, Overstone, Northamptonshire Phase 3

This report provides the results for the third phase of evaluation trenching and comprised sixty six trenches in fields 3 and 4. It follows on from previous geophysical survey and trial trench evaluation. There were the remains of a Romano-British settlement dating to the late 1st to 4th centuries in field 3 comprising a number of intersecting rectilinear ditches enclosures. Within the settlement were the remains of at least three roundhouses, of which one was stone built and a length of wall that may have been the remains of another building. The artefactual evidence indicates that the settlement was a fairly low-status, rural farmstead. It appears to have been largely confined to the central part of field 3, with possible field boundaries extending away fro it to the west and south. Undated ditches boundaries found in earlier phases of the evaluation may also be remnants of a wider field system. Early/ middle Saxon activity was found in field 4; a deep pit may be the remains of a substantial sunken-featured building. A further such feature was found to the north and together they suggest a dispersed or shifting Saxon settlement. Further postholes may be the remains of more substantial timber buildings and a series of undated ditches may have been contemporary.