SNN117085 - AWHi Interim Report for Fieldwalking and Construction Integrated Recording of Flint Scatters in No-Data (blank) Areas C23. Site Codes: 1C21NORCI, 1C21HAFCI, 1C21NILCI, 1C21VERC

This document presents the interim results of a programme of fieldwalking and Construction Integrated Recording (CIR) undertaken between 9th August 2021 and 26th May 2022 across four sites within the County of Northamptonshire: - C30060/C30061 North of Radstone (NGR SP 578280 412420); -C30064/C30065 North of Ilett’s Farm (NGR SP 592210 397260); -C30062/C30063 and C30072 Hall Farm (NGR SP 589070 400080); and - C30066/C30067 Versions Farm (NGR SP 598380 388860). The results of the previous phases of test-pits, geochemical and magnetic susceptibility survey (Document no. 1EW03-FUS_ARC-EV-REP-C000-000007) demonstrated that each area had potential for early prehistoric archaeology to be present. Worked flint recovered by fieldwalking at each site (areas C30060, C30062, C30064 and C30066) had a strong Upper Palaeolithic component. A wide range of artefacts were present including both debitage and tools. The flint was all heavily patinated. Distributions tended towards broadly even spreads as the lithics had moved by colluviation, however, they reflected localised activity. Finds from in situ buried soil horizons (palaeosols) were brought to the surface by ploughing. The CIR sites; C30061, C30063/C30073 and C30067, all produced archaeological remains of early prehistoric date and also some later prehistoric and suspected Roman. Worked flint of Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic–Early Bronze Age were recovered. Some of the early material arrived on the site in the fluvio-glacial gravels, others were found in features and on early land surfaces, or as residual pieces recovered in later features, potentially dating from the Iron Age and Roman periods. Area C30067, Versions Farm, produced a prehistoric pit sealed below colluvium infilling a dry valley and cut down from within a buried palaeosol layer, whilst in the overlying colluvial deposits three inhumations were discovered together with other pits and small finds. A geoarchaeological section was cut across the valley side of the excavation site revealing a complex history of site development from the Late Glacial through to the present. The palaeosol has potential to inform on past landscape formation, vegetation, and was an important chronostratigraphic marker for when the onset of mass colluviation took place. Area C30065, North of Ilett’s Farm, produced groups of highly truncated pits, postholes and stakeholes indicative of early structures together with some later elements of what was thought to be a Roman field system and three associated cremations. Area C30063, Hall Farm, was an important site where pits, stakeholes and postholes belonging to lightly built structures were found below a truncated palaeosol that also had pits cut into it from above and was sealed below colluvium. Datable material was recovered from several of these features and the palaeosol. At the lowest part of the site a circular group of postholes and an associated pit with ash debris in was possibly the highly truncated remains of a roundhouse. This was situated immediately below the colluvium. The site has significant potential to inform on Late Glacial through Early-Mid Holocene human activity and landscape change. Area C30061, North of Radstone, produced a large number of features of archaeological and potentially natural origin cut into the fluvio-glacial sand and gravel substrate, and sealed below colluvium. Clear structural forms were identified in some cases and pits containing burnt material and worked flint were found, which will allow the cultural activity to be dated. Later features were also found cut into the colluvium of Iron Age and perhaps later date. A geoarchaeological section was recorded to inform on landscape taphonomy and potential human activity in prehistory. Absolute scientific dating in the form radiocarbon dates and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL), have been proposed, together with other scientific sampling of deposits with particular attention paid to the palaeosols in C30067 and C30063, for pollen, pXRF, pOSL and sedimentary aDNA. A large quantity of flint was recovered across all sites and as part of the initial rapid assessment natural fragments will be discarded. The quantity of flint present throughout the sites was large, however, much of the flint modification took place on already naturally thermal fractured flakes, making the identification of certain artefacts in the field challenging as well as for specialist analysis. Areas C30061, C30065 and C30067 also produced Late Iron Age and Roman remains, consistent with archaeology recorded in the surrounding area at Ilett’s Farm (Document no. 1EW03-FUS_ARC-EV-REP-CS07_CL12-000004), Foxhills (Morris 2017) and during the A43 widening scheme between the M40 and Towcester (Mudd 2008). Three human inhumations thought to be of Roman date were found in C30067 and three cremations were found in C30065. Abraded Medieval pottery sherds were found in C30067 in the upper horizon of the colluvium, infilling a dry valley tributary of the River Great Ouse. C30061 produced medieval pottery from two features cut into the colluvium. Post-medieval archaeology was present across all fields and consisted of drainage features, ridge and furrow cultivation, and field boundaries and, in the case of C30061, a large gravel extraction pit.