SNN116528 - Land West of Northampton Northamptonshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

A programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in May 2022 to May 2023 at the request of White Peak Planning, acting on behalf of Bloor Homes South Midlands, on land west of Northampton. An area of 9.4ha was excavated within the development site, which was spread across two excavation areas (A and B) situated on opposite sides of the Dallington Brook.Similar levels of archaeology were revealed across both excavation areas, with evidence for activity that spanned the Neolithic to the post-medieval/modern periods. The earliest activity identified on site comprised several early prehistoric pits, which contained moderate assemblages of worked flint, some of which are dateable to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. Following this, two Middle Bronze Age cremation cemeteries were established, as well as two Early Iron Age pit alignments. During the Middle to Late Iron Age a series of enclosures and associated ring gullies, pit groups, a possible trackway and boundary ditcheswere established on either side of the Dallington Brook, which represented three distinct phases of activity (Period 3, Phases 3.1–3.3). In Area A, a Roman limekiln was identified, and a skull dated to the early medieval/Anglo-Saxon period was found in Area B. The most recent activity identified on the site pertained to medieval to modern agriculture and boundary features.A moderate assemblage of pottery, alongside smaller quantities of worked flint, fired/burnt clay, ceramic building material (CBM), worked stone, metalwork, industrial waste, clay tobacco pipe and glass were recovered from the site. The majority of the pottery dates to the late prehistoric period, with early prehistoric, Late Iron Age (transitional) and Roman, medieval and post-medieval/modern pottery being present in smaller numbers. Other artefacts of note include a loomweight fragment, two spindle whorls, possible fragments of an oven or hearth structure, a whetstone and a copper-alloy barbed and tanged arrowhead.This document presents a quantification and assessment of the evidence recovered from the excavation. It goes on to consider the evidence collectively in its local, regional and national contexts, and presents an updated project design for a programme of post-excavation analysis to bring the results to appropriate publication.