SNN110232 - Archaeological Excavations within Housing Area 6C/D, Mawsley New Village, Great Cransley, Kettering, Northamptonshire (SP 811 764)

University of Leicester Archaeological Services carried out an excavation at Mawsley New Village, Housing Areas 6C/6D (centred on SP 811 764) between April and November 2007. The work was undertaken as a part of an archaeological mitigation strategy in advance of the continued expansion of the village. The excavations revealed a complex sequence of archaeological activity spanning the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age through to the Anglo-Saxon period. The earliest activity was represented by a short length of pit alignment. This became the focus of mid-late Iron Age open settlement, consisting of a single large roundhouse. Subsequently a small enclosed farmstead settlement was established on the site around the end of the 1st century BC that consisted of a pair of sub-rectangular enclosures that respected the line of the earlier pit alignment. The south-western enclosure was shallow and contained a single roundhouse. The north-eastern enclosure was much more substantial but contained no clear settlement activity, suggesting it served a pastoral function. The settlement was subsequently re-organised in the early decades of the 1st century AD. The deeper north-east enclosure was extended across the area of the shallower enclosure. Sub-enclosed areas were constructed at the south-western extent that became the new focus of small scale domestic activity, consisting of two roundhouses. This settlement form continued to function through the Roman conquest period, into to the mid-late 1st century AD. This period saw the continued replacement timber roundhouses within the settlement core and the expansion of new ditch systems at the north-east end of the site. These included a large enclosure and associated droveway that were probably associated with stock control within the enclosure system. The settlement was re-organised again around the end of the 1st century when the main enclosure and sub-enclosed areas were formalised into a single sub-rectangular enclosure. Also the settlement extensions recorded at the north-east end of the site had gone out of use and new ditches had been incorporated into the this side of the enclosure suggesting it had been linked into a new field system. Within the enclosure a stone roundhouse had been constructed close to the focus of earlier domestic settlement that contained a number of oven type structures. Close to the roundhouse two wells and a trough feature had been constructed. Around the middle of the 2nd century the large rectilinear enclosure was largely in-filled, although it was partially maintained around the stone roundhouse, on the south-west side of the site. This smaller enclosure was linked to a pair of parallel ditches that crossed the site, probably forming part of a trackway. To the east of the trackway a number of parallel ditches were recorded that may represent evidence of drainage for cultivation. Further ditches were recorded on the south-western side that respected the earlier alignments. A number of possible corn-drier ovens were recorded on the edges of the earlier enclosure ditches and the large stone ovens within the stone roundhouse may also date to this period. This activity appeared to be non-domestic in nature, perhaps primarily associated with crop processing. It is suggested that either that main focus of domestic settlement had shifted slightly away from the excavation area by this time or that perhaps the settlement had actually been totally abandoned and its remnants had become incorporated into a larger estate. The site also appears to become the focus of ritualised activity at this time with the internment of a burial within the north-east side of the enclosure and clear evidence of structural deposition in and around its south-western side. It is uncertain when the site became abandoned although the coinage recovered suggests there was still a Roman presence on the site until the early 4th century. The site may have remained an important feature within the landscape into the post-Roman period. This is evidenced by an Anglo-Saxon burial, radiocarbon dated to the mid 6th to mid 7th centuries AD that had been placed into an earlier ditch, close to the location of the stone roundhouse. The burial had been placed in the prone position (face down), a practice that is indicative of Anglo-Saxon deviant burial rites. The archive is currently being held by University of Leicester Archaeological Services, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, pending identification of a suitable repository. The site code is MVC07.