SNN113258 - Images and GIS data from an Archaeological Evaluation at Zone 3 Priors Hall Park, Kirby Lane, Corby, Northamptonshire 2018

This collection comprises images and GIS data from an archaeological evaluation undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in September 2018 on land known as Zone 3 Priors Hall Park, Kirby Lane, Corby, Northamptonshire. A total of 15 trenches were excavated in order to further define the extent of a previously identified Roman villa complex and associated trackways. Despite the high archaeological potential of the site as a whole, few archaeological features were identified. To the north of the main villa complex a large pit was encountered containing an assemblage of ceramic building material, pottery, animal bone and other material. While the greater part of the assemblage was of Roman date and clearly derived from the villa complex to the south, the rolled, abraded nature of much of the material and the presence of small quantities of medieval and possible early post-medieval material suggests that the assemblage as a whole is the result of field clearance in the medieval and/or early post-medieval period, when elements of the area was brought under agricultural cultivation. It seems likely that the large quantities of Roman cultural material being ploughed up was simply buried in a large pit to dispose of it, at which point in time other, later, cultural material that had been incorporated into the fields during manuring was also collected up and buried. A pebbled surface and associated gully and ditch, interpreted as either the remains of a possible trackway or road, or a possible working surface was recorded to the east of the villa. A similar surface of pebbles on the same alignment had been identified during an earlier phase of evaluation, and both align with parallel linear anomalies recorded by geophysical survey. Possible roadside activity in the form of a large, shallow pit with a charcoal-rich fill was also encountered.