SNN109203 - An Early Bronze Age Henge and a Middle Bronze Age Ditch System at Prior Hall, Zone 3, Kirby Lane, Corby, Northamptonshire

In October and November 2011 a prehistoric ring ditch and an adjacent ditch system, located by geophysical survey and previously investigated by trial trenching, were subject to open area excavation. The ring ditch has been shown to be a henge monument. A nearby pit contained an assemblage of decorated and rusticated Beaker sherds. Fragments of hazelnut shell from this pit have given the earliest radiocarbon date, 2140-1950 cal BC, indicating that the pit and perhaps the adjacent henge, were constructed in the Early Bronze Age, the final centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. The henge sits on high sloping ground, just below the watershed, overlooking the Willow Brook, which joins the River Nene to the east. The henge was near circular at 31.0-33.5m in diameter, with a broad U-shaped ditch and an entrance to the south-east. The former presence of an external bank was indicated by deposits of limestone that had come in from outside. There were a few shallow pits within the interior and to the northwest the unurned cremation burial of a 6-8 year old child was accompanied by a jet bead. This burial and a deposit of carbonised oak in the secondary fills of the ditch have given radiocarbon dates in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, 1750-1620 cal BC, indicating that the burial was a later addition to the monument. A Middle Bronze Age side-looped spearhead also came from the fill of the henge ditch, showing the survival of the henge as a substantial earthwork. To the north of the henge there was an L-shaped ditch system, and a red deer antler tine has been radiocarbon dated to the Middle Bronze Age, 1190-1010 cal BC. The ditch also produced part of a human femur and fragments from a cylindrical fired-clay loomweight.