SNN108517 - Roman settlement and Burial at Water Lane, Towcester, Northamptonshire Excavations 1997-98

Excavation and watching brief was undertaken by Northamptonshire Archaeology on land between Water Lane and Richmond Road in advance of a supermarket development. Excavation was hampered by the extremely wet ground, and parts of the site have been preserved, uninvestigated, beneath the surface car parks. Activity in the early 1st century AD is indicated by presence of small quantities of Belgic pottery. Roman settlement appeared to be concentrated in the period from the later 1st century up to the construction of the town wall in the late 2nd century AD. A line of substantial post-pits and a parallel ditch probably enclosed the compound or plot of an affluent Romanised household, perhaps fronting onto Watling Street to the east. To the west, a metalled road, dated to the late 1st or early 2nd century, may have been part of the Alchester Road, with contemporary settlement nearby. Following the construction of the town defences there was little domestic settlement in this extramural area, although usage for burial, which may have begun in the early 2nd century, continued through the 3rd and 4th centuries; 28 inhumations and one unurned cremation were recovered. The burials appear to have been in small extramural backplot groups, rather than a formal cemetery. Two people had been decapitated and another exhibited spinal tuberculosis, Pott’s disease. An unusual genetic anomaly in three burials suggested that they were related. Late Roman activity to the south-west comprised a rectilinear enclosure with a nearby T-shaped drying oven. A large post-medieval ditch along the northern margin of the site may have been part of Towcester’s Civil War defences.