SNN117194 - Land at Farndish Road, Irchester: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

Between 4th May and 18th June 2021, Oxford Archaeology East carried out archaeological excavations on land east of Farndish Road, Irchester ahead of the construction of a residential development. The excavation was preceded by geophysical survey and trial trenching which had revealed significant prehistoric and Romano-British features, and these were targeted by two excavation areas covering a total of 1.1ha within the wider 3.5ha development area. The earliest archaeological remains, of Middle Iron Age date, were found in the southern part of the development area (Area 1) and consisted of an extensive boundary ditch within which three individual burials were found interred on the base of the feature. Two of the burials were individual crouched inhumations and the third was another crouched inhumation accompanied by the partial articulated remains of a second individual (including the skull) and a quantity of disarticulated human bone. One of the burials has been radiocarbon dated to 210-50 cal BC (88% confidence). Aside from the burials, only a very small quantity of Iron Age pottery and animal bone was recovered from the ditch. Later activity in Area 1 was represented by a north to south aligned RomanoBritish trackway which cut across the earlier ditch. Defined by a pair of parallel ditches, in places the original metalled surface of the trackway had survived. Finds were scarce but included a copper alloy Late Iron Age/Early Roman brooch from one of the trackside ditches. In Area 2, another set of parallel, probable trackway, ditches were exposed against the northern edge of the development area. Their southern extent had been truncated by post-medieval quarrying, but although they were offset, and on a slightly different alignment, they may represent the continuation of the routeway uncovered to the south in Area 1. A small assemblage of Early Roman pottery was recovered from these ditches and, significantly, an Anglo-Saxon inhumation burial, radiocarbon dated to 590-660 cal AD (95% confidence) and, accompanied by an iron knife blade, had been interred in a grave cut through one of the infilled trackway ditches. The northern part of the development area had been subject to extensive limestone quarrying over the course of the medieval, post-medieval and early modern periods, whilst the remains of furrows associated with the open field systems of medieval and post-medieval Irchester were exposed across the southern part of the site. The site lies in a rich archaeological landscape, less than 1km from the Roman town at Irchester, and the evidence for prehistoric, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon activity revealed by the excavations has significant potential to contribute to regional research objectives for these periods.