SNN110755 - Towcester Southern Extension, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, November 2013

Generally the evaluation results correlate well with the earlier geophysical surveys, which indicated that the main area of archaeological potential lay in the south-eastern part of the proposed wider development area. The evaluation has however identified numerous linear and discrete features not identified by the geophysical surveys which suggest that occupation was perhaps even more intensive than that indicated by the geophysical survey. However the evaluation has also indicated that the majority of features are relatively shallow, indicative that the archaeological resource has been heavily truncated by erosion and ploughing. The results of the evaluation record three pieces of residual worked flint on the site probably dating to the Neolithic/Bronze Age periods (4000 – 700 BC). Little of this date has been recorded for the proposed development area except for a single polished axe. The results of the evaluation are dominated by settlement and land management (farming) activities from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. The current results confirm those of the earlier geophysical surveys in 2007 and 2012. The characteristic patterning of the mapped anomalies and recorded features comprise well known aspects of later prehistoric and early Roman rural settlement and land management features. These include enclosures (settlement and pastoral), some with circular anomalies suggesting roundhouse structures,as well as drove ways linked in with the settlement enclosures as well as associated field system boundaries in close proximity. The faunal assemblage indicates the management and butchery of the usual domesticates for these periods, including cattle, pig, sheep/goat and horse.