SNN109886 - Archaeological Excavation at The Former Allotments, Newport Pagnell Road, Hardingstone, Northampton 2013

Archaeological excavation was carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology on the former allotments at Newport Pagnell Road, Hardingstone, Northampton. It revealed elements of a late Iron Age enclosure and ditch system. The site produced a small pottery assemblage tightly dated to the late Iron Age, 1st century BC, and the terminals of the main enclosure ditches all contained significant deposits, including a near complete burnished jar, and also a bottom stone from a rotary quern. The animal bone comprises the main domesticated animals, with sheep dominant and perhaps forming economic base for the settlement. A pit and a ditch produced quantities of charred cereal seeds of barley oats, wheat and spelt wheat, and the pit also produced a rich assemblage of weed seeds. The excavated site forms the western part of a more extensive area of contemporary settlement, partially excavated in 1968, but to the east occupation also continued through the 1st century AD During the medieval period the site was under cultivation and truncated furrows of a field system overlay the earlier archaeological deposits.