SNN111439 - DIRFT III: Land east of Watling Street (A5), Northamptonshire. Excavation Report

A programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology between August 2015 and April 2016 on behalf of Prologis UK Ltd, at DIRFT III, Land East of Watling Street (A5), Northamptonshire. An area of approximately 17.4ha, comprising 11 different excavation areas (Fig. 1), was excavated across the 340ha development area. The excavations revealed a landscape of extensive and frequently low-key agricultural activity dating to the later prehistoric, Roman, medieval and post-medieval periods. Following the completion of the excavations and through the preparation of a Post Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design (CA 2016), five updated research aims and objectives were identified in order to inform the analysis of the archive. This report sets out the results of that analysis and discusses those results in their wider regional and national contexts. Later prehistoric activity comprised a pit alignment orientated north/south, along with two segments of curvilinear ditch, which may have formed parts of trackways or enclosure boundaries. Roman activity was more extensive although also agricultural in origin and comprised a series of rectilinear enclosures, probably representing fields, interspersed with waterholes. In addition, there was a ‘token’ human cremation burial radiocarbon-dated to the Early Roman period and deposited in a pit immediately to the west of a north-west/southeast-orientated trackway in the southern part of the development area. The burial was accompanied by a group of small iron nails, possibly hobnails or casket nails. In the medieval period parts of the development area were used for arable agriculture, as evidenced by the remains of ridge-and-furrow cultivation across several of the excavation areas. In the post-medieval period parts of the landscape were enclosed with fields and trackways once more.