Late Iron Age and Roman settlement at Bozeat Quarry, Northamptonshire : excavations 1995-2016

MOLA (formerly Northamptonshire Archaeology), has undertaken intermittent archaeological work within Bozeat Quarry over a twenty-year period from 1995-2016 covering an area of 59ha. The earliest archaeological features lay in the extreme northern area where a Bronze Age to Iron Age cremation burial was possibly contemporary with an adjacent late Bronze Age/early Iron Age pit alignment. In the middle to late Iron Age a settlement was established at the southern part of the site over a c170m by 150m area. It was a well organised farmstead, mostly open in plan with two roundhouses, routeway, enclosures, boundary ditches and pits. In the early 1st century AD, cAD 30, two separate settlements lay c0.5km apart. The former southern Iron Age farmstead had perhaps shifted location c150m to the north-west and a there was new farmstead to the north. Both settlements were located on a west facing slope of a valley side and were sited on sands and gravels at between 64m and 66m aOD. The Northern Settlement was only occupied for about 150 years and was involved in pastoral farming, but local coarseware pottery production was of some importance with a group of 12 pottery kilns dated to the middle to late 1st century AD. This is seemingly the largest number of pottery kilns from a single settlement of this period yet found in the regionally important Upper Nene Valley pottery producing area. The Southern Settlement was larger and continued to the end of the Roman period. In this area there was a notable scatter of 12 Iron Age and 1st century AD Roman coins as well as 24 contemporary brooches found over an area measuring c170m by c130m. This collection of finds may suggest the presence of a shrine or temple located in the area. It is perhaps significant that in 1964 directly to the west of the excavation, a middle Roman round stone building was found, perhaps an associated shrine. Within the excavation area in the latest Iron Age to early Roman period there was a possible roundhouse, a large oval enclosure and a field system. The latter largely related to pastoral farming including areas where paddocks were linked to routeways suggesting significant separation of livestock had occurred. Four cremation burials, including one deposited in a box, and an inhumation lay in three locations. Pastoral farming was a significant activity throughout the Roman period with enclosures, paddocks and linked routeways uncovered. In the late 2nd to 4th century there were two stone buildings and a stone malt oven at the extreme western extent of the site, within 50m to the east of the probably contemporary shrine recorded in 1964. There was minor evidence of early to middle Saxon occupation within the area of the former middle to late Iron Age settlement. No structures were found, although a few pits may date to this period and mark short stay visits. A small cemetery of five individuals respected the former Roman field system and probably dated to the late 6th to 7th centuries. The burials included a decapitation and a burial with a knife and a buckle. The site was then not re-occupied and became part of the fields of Bozeat medieval and post-medieval settlements. Cover 5 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents 5 List of Figures 11 List of Tables 13 Contributors 15 Acknowledgements 17 1: Introduction 19 Project background 19 Historical and archaeological background 20 Late Iron Age/Roman period 20 Saxon/medieval and later 20 Location, topography and geology 20 Archaeological work within Bozeat Quarry 1996-2016 22 1996 22 Desk-based assessment (NA 1996) 22 Fieldwalking (Holmes 1996) 22 Geophysical Survey (Holmes 1996) 22 Field 2 (Northern Settlement area) 22 Field 3 22 Field 4 26 Metal-detecting survey (Holmes 1996) 26 Trial excavation (Holmes 1997) 26 Test pits in Fields 1 and 4 26 Trial trenching 26 1997 Brief (Kidd 1997); 2000 Project Design (NA 2000) 26 2001 excavations 28 2001-2016 Excavations and watching briefs. 28 2002 watching brief 31 2003 and 2004 watching brief 31 2005 watching brief 31 2006 watching brief 31 2007 watching Brief 31 2008 watching brief 31 2009 watching brief 31 2010 watching brief 31 2011 watching brief 32 2012 watching brief 32 2013 watching brief 32 2014 and 2016 watching brief 32 Site phasing 32 Figure 1.1 Site location 19 Figure 1.2 Contours, cropmarks, field boundaries and Historic Environment Record (HER) overlaid by the areas of greatest archaeological interest defined in the archaeological brief (Kidd 1997) 21 Figure 1.3 Fieldwalking-Roman pottery distribution overlaying archaeological features (after Holmes 1996 fig 5) 23 Figure 1.4 Fieldwalking early-middle Saxon pottery distribution overlaying archaeological features (after Holmes 1996 fig 6) 24 Figure 1.5 Geophysical survey 25 Figure 1.6 Trial trenching and test pits 1997 27 Figure 1.7 Archaeological work by area and year 29 Figure 1.8 General site plan 30 2: The archaeological evidence 33 Period 1: Bronze Age to early Iron Age (c2000-400BC) 33 Cremation burial 52 33 Pit alignment 33 Period 2: Middle to late Iron Age (c200BC to cAD 30) 33 Introduction 33 Southern Settlement (Field 3; Area 2) 33 Middle and southern extent of middle/late Iron Age settlement 35 Routeway 1 leading towards Ring Ditches 1 and 2 [628 and 675/677] 35 Boundary ditch [656/737] and curvilinear ditch [767] to the west 37 Boundary ditches in the southern half of the settlement 37 Pit Group 1 37 Possible boundary ditches [613 and 604] close to the two ring ditches 37 Southern Settlement boundary 37 Four ditches to the east of boundary ditch [656/737] 38 Linear and curvilinear ditches [681,683/764, 673/679, 685/693, 695, 699 and 10010] 38 Pit Groups 2-4 in the south-eastern area 38 Pits [731 and 739] 38 Northern part of middle/late Iron Age settlement 35 Period 3: Late pre-Roman Iron Age to late Roman (cAD 30 – c400) 38 Northern Settlement (cAD 30- middle/late 2nd century AD) 39 Period 3.1: The Northern Settlement – late Iron Age to early Roman (cAD30 – 100) 39 Pits in a possible open settlement 39 Planned settlement? 39 C-shaped Enclosures 3 and 4 39 Paddock 1 on northern side of Routeway 2 41 Pits or slots [95, 96 and 98] 41 Routeway 2 41 Enclosure 5 41 Boundaries of Enclosure 5 41 Paddock 2 and Routeway 3 within the western side of Enclosure 5 42 Sub-division(s) within Enclosure 5? 42 Paddocks and pits on the northern side of Enclosure 5 42 Pottery kilns (Figs 2.5-2.11) 43 Possible kiln/feature [78] 43 Kiln [89] (Fig 2.5) 43 Kiln [100] 44 Kiln [99] 44 Kiln [106] (Fig 2.6) 45 Kiln [109] (Fig 2.6) 45 Kiln [127] (Fig 2.7) 45 Kiln [174] (Fig 2.8) 45 Kiln [175] (Fig 2.9) 45 Kiln [176] (Fig 2.10) 47 Kiln [177] (Fig 2.11) 48 Kiln [178] 49 Enclosure 6 49 Internal sub-divisions within Enclosure 6 50 Pits and a posthole within Enclosure 6 51 Fields and paddocks on the south side of the Northern Settlement 51 Period 3.2: Northern Settlement, early Roman (cAD100 – 150/175) 52 Cemetery 1 52 T-shaped corn dryer [170] 52 Ditches [129 and 138] 54 Pit group 5, other pits, waterhole and postholes 54 Period 3: Southern Settlement, late Iron Age and Roman (cAD 30 – cAD 400) 54 Period 3.1: The Southern Settlement – late Iron Age to early Roman (cAD30 – 100) 56 Central and western areas of main domestic settlement 56 Distribution of coins and brooches 56 Ring Ditch 3 56 Enclosure 7 and related field system 56 Area with a possible structure and pits 56 Paddock 11, Routeway 4 and other fragmentary ditches and pits 59 Burials 60 Cremation burial [231] and inhumation [263] 60 Cremations burials [7122 and 7124] 61 Domestic settlement area 56 Eastern area (Fig 2.20) 61 Enclosure 8 and external ditches 61 Kiln [5068] 61 Pits 63 Field system in the south and south-eastern areas (Period 3.1) (Fig 2.23) 63 Features within the southern area 64 Possible oven [534/536] 64 Possible routeway [44 and 36] 66 Features within the far south-eastern area 66 Possible kiln/oven [649] 66 Features in the northern part of the south-eastern area 67 Field system in the Northern area Period 3.1 (cAD30 –cAD100) 68 Enclosure 9 68 Internal divisions within Enclosure 9 70 External features to south-eastern of Enclosure 9 70 External paddocks to south of Enclosure 9 70 West of Enclosure 9 70 Period 3.2: early Roman (cAD 100-150/175) 70 Domestic area 70 Compartmentalised field system 70 Other ditches and pits outside the compartmentalised feature to the north-east 72 Period 3.2: early Roman field systems in the southern part of the settlement 72 Northern field area (cAD 100-150/175) 74 Pit Group 7 74 2006 settlement area 77 A possible building and pits 77 Stone building (walls 56 and 156) and possible courtyard surface 79 Corn dryer or malting oven [73/84] 80 Field system to the north of the settlement 80 Overview of Period 3.3b field system 81 Main field system area 82 Period 3.3: middle to late Roman (cAD 150/175 – 400) 77 Period 4: early to middle Saxon 82 Intrusive Saxon artefacts 82 Saxon features 82 Cemetery 2 (Human burials 11-14) 85 Period 5: Medieval to post-medieval 86 Figure 2.1. Bronze Age to early Iron Age features in northern area (Field 2) 34 Figure 2.2. Bronze Age to early Iron Age northern area cremation urn (50) 35 Figure 2.3. Southern Settlement middle to late Iron Age settlement 36 Figure 2.4 late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement 40 Figure 2.5 Late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement kiln [89] 44 Figure 2.6 Late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement kilns [106 and 109] 46 Figure 2.7 Late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement kiln [127] 47 Figure 2.8 Late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement kiln [174] 48 Figure 2.9 Late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement kiln [175] 49 Figure 2.10 Late Iron Age to early Roman Northern Settlement kiln [176] 50 Figure 2.12. Early Roman Northern Settlement 53 Figure 2.13. Early Roman Northern Settlement HB5 [171], looking north 54 Figure 2.14. Early Roman Northern Settlement corn dryer [170] 55 Figure 2.15. Late Iron Age to late Roman Southern Settlement 57 Figure 2.16. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement ‘domestic’ area 58 Figure 2.17. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement brooch and coin distribution map and human burials located 59 Figure 2.18. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement burial [263] 60 Figure 2.19. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement cremation burial [7124] 60 Figure 2.20. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement eastern part of the ‘domestic’ area 62 Figure 2.21. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement kiln [5068] 63 Figure 2.22. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement pit [5092] 64 Figure 2.23. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement field system in the south-eastern area 65 Figure 2.24. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement oven [534/536] 66 Figure 2.25. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement kiln [649] 67 Figure 2.26. Late Iron Age to early Roman Southern Settlement field system in the northern area 69 Figure 2.27. Early Roman Southern Settlement 71 Figure 2.28. Early Roman Southern Settlement southern area 73 Figure 2.29. Early Roman Southern Settlement southern area pit [89], looking south-east 74 Figure 2.30. Early Roman Southern Settlement southern area pits [111 and 100] 75 Figure 2.31. Early Roman Southern Settlement field system in the northern and eastern areas 76 Figure 2.32. Middle to late Roman Southern Settlement southern area 78 Figure 2.33. Middle to late Roman Southern Settlement southern area building wall (56) 79 Figure 2.34. Middle to late Roman Southern Settlement southern area corn dryer or malting oven [73/84] 80 Figure 2.35. Middle to late Roman Southern Settlement central area 81 Figure 2.36. Early to middle Anglo-Saxon features 83 Figure 2.37. Early to middle Saxon inhumation [741] (Cemetery 2) 84 Figure 2.38. Early to middle Saxon inhumation [744] (Cemetery 2) 86 Figure 2.39. Early to middle Saxon inhumation [747] (Cemetery 2) 87 Figure 2.40. Early to middle Saxon inhumation [756] (Cemetery 2) 88 3: Finds 89 A prehistoric burial urn 89 Iron Age and Roman pottery 89 Summary 89 Pottery overview 90 Period 1: Bronze Age to early Iron Age 93 Period 2: Middle to late Iron Age 93 Periods 93 Period 3.1: Late Iron Age to early Roman (cAD 30-100) 95 Ditch [145] (fill 132) 97 Pottery from the Late Iron Age/early Roman (Period 3.1) features 97 Kilns 98 Period 3.2: Early Roman (AD 100-150/175) 99 Period 3.3: Middle to late Roman (AD 150/175- 400) 101 Pottery from the early Roman (Period 3.2) features 101 Pottery from middle to late Roman (Period 3.3) features 102 Worked Flint 89 Assemblage composition 89 Discussion 89 Introduction 89 Raw material and condition 89 The Northern Settlement 103 Discussion 104 Pottery Sources 104 Occupation and activity characteristics 120 Samian Pottery 120 Kilns and kiln furniture 121 Early/middle Anglo-Saxon pottery 124 Chronology and Discussion 124 Coins 126 Reece Period 1 (Iron Age and pre-Claudian, pre AD41) 127 Reece Period 2 (Claudian 41-54) 127 Reece Period 4 (Flavian 69-96) 127 Vespasian: 127 City Commemoratives – (330-335) 128 GLORIA EXERCITVS – (single standard 335-341) 128 Reece Period 10 (Severan II 193-222) 128 Septimius Severus: 128 Reece Period 17 (Constantinian II 330-348) 128 Reece Period 18 (Constantinian III 348-364) 128 The 4th century: 128 Unidentified Coins of the 2nd century 128 Unidentified coins of the 3rd century (Reece period 13 260-275) 128 VICTORIAE DD AVGG Q NN – (347-348) 128 GLORIA ROMANORVM 129 Gratian (367-383) 129 Gratian – post reform 129 Reece Period 19 (Valentinic 364-378) 129 Reece period 20 (378-388) 129 SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE 129 Unattributed Valentinic period coins. 129 Valens (364-78) 129 Valentinian I (346-75) 129 Valentinian II (375-392) 129 Discussion: the assemblage as a whole 130 Medieval 130 Post-medieval 130 The early assemblage 130 The later assemblage 131 Conclusions 132 Daub and tile 126 Querns 126 Methodology 126 Nature of the assemblage 126 The brooches 136 Catalogue 137 Late Iron Age 137 Anglo-Saxon 138 Roman 138 Other finds 138 Prehistoric Finds 139 Bronze Age 139 Personal possessions 139 Jewellery 139 Toilet equipment 140 Roman Finds 139 Box burial (Context 231) 140 Equipment and furnishings 140 Building equipment 140 Household 140 Tools 142 Illustrations 142 Early to middle Saxon 142 Medieval 145 Conservation report 145 Conservator Notes on other artefacts 148 Figure 3.1. Pottery LNVCC 100 Figure 3.2a. Pottery illustration catalogue 1-4 106 Figure 3.2b. Pottery illustration catalogue 7-12 107 Figure 3.3a. Pottery illustration catalogue 13-19 108 Figure 3.3b. Pottery illustration catalogue 20-25 109 Figure 3.4a. Pottery illustration catalogue 26-35 110 Figure 3.4b. Pottery illustration catalogue 36-42 111 Figure 3.5a. Pottery illustration catalogue 43-47 112 Figure 3.5b. Pottery illustration catalogue 48-54 113 Figure 3.6a. Pottery illustration catalogue 55-63 114 Figure 3.6b. Pottery illustration catalogue 64-67 115 Figure 3.7a. Pottery illustration catalogue 68-79 116 Figure 3.7b. Pottery illustration catalogue 80-88 117 Figure 3.8a. Pottery illustration catalogue 89-98 118 Figure 3.8b. Pottery illustration catalogue 99-108 119 Figure 3.9. Kiln bars 121 Figure 3.10. Illustrations 125 Figure 3.12. Brooches 141 Figure 3.13. Illustrations 143 Figure 3.14. Illustrations 144 Figure 3.15. Illustrations 146 Figure 3.16. Fine textile on smaller main fragment of buckle (context 743) 146 Figure 3.17. The plain weave of the fine textile marked in red on the detached piece of larger fragment 147 Figure 3.18. Textile fibres on the smaller main fragment 147 Figure 3.19. Insect lavae casings adhering to small fragment from buckle (context 743) 148 4: Human, faunal and environmental evidence 149 Human bone 149 Introduction 149 Methods 149 Cremated human remains 149 Inhumations and disarticulated material 149 Preservation and completeness 149 Results 149 Demographic Data 149 Cemetery 1 149 Cemetery 2 150 Other burials and disarticulated material 150 Inhumations and disarticulated material 149 Metric Data 150 Stature 150 Indices 150 Non-metric traits 151 Palaeopathology 151 Congenital anomalies 151 Spinal disorders 151 Extra-spinal 151 Dental disease 151 Infectious disease 152 Trauma 152 Cremated human bone 153 Joint disease 153 Extra-spinal joint disease 153 Spinal joint disease 153 Other pathological conditions 153 Cribra orbitalia 153 Urned cremation deposit (50) 153 Boxed cremation [231] 154 Discussion 154 Inhumations and disarticulated material 154 Cremated human bone 155 Unurned cremation burial [542] 154 Unurned cremation burial [7121] 154 Unurned cremation burial [7123] 154 Animal bone 155 Introduction 155 Identification and quantification 156 Preservation and taphonomy 156 Butchery and body part distribution 157 Associated bone groups 158 Discussion 158 Bird remains 158 Cattle 158 Dogs 158 Horses 158 Pigs 158 Sheep and goats 158 Summary 159 Plant macrofossils and other remains 159 Introduction and method statement 159 Sample composition 159 Discussion 160 Northern Settlement pit fills (Period 3.1) – Table 4.13 160 Southern Settlement ditch fill (Period 2) - Table 4.12 160 Northern Settlement pit fills (Period 3.2) – Table 4.13 161 Other Northern Settlement features (Period 3.1) – Table 4.14 161 Southern Settlement ditch fills (Period 3.1) – Table 4.16 164 Southern Settlement pit fills (Period 3.1) – Table 4.15 164 Other Southern Settlement features (Period 3.1; cAD30 – 100) – Table 4.17 166 Southern Settlement ditch fills (Period 3.2) – Table 4.19 166 Southern Settlement pit fills (Period 3.2) – Table 4.18 166 Southern Settlement pit fills (Period 3.3) – Table 4.20 170 Conclusions 170 Figure 4.1. Adult female (757), cleft neural arch (atlas) (scale 3cm) 151 5: Discussion 175 Period 1: Bronze Age to early Iron Age 175 Cremation burial [52] 175 Pit alignment 175 Period 2: middle Iron Age to late Iron Age (c200BC – AD 30) 175 Southern Settlement 175 Ritual and religion 177 Period 3: Late pre-Roman Iron Age to late Roman (cAD 30-4th century) 177 Establishment and locations of the two late Iron Age to Roman settlements 177 Abandonment of the two settlements 179 Northern and Southern Settlement areas 179 Status of the sites 180 Ritual and religion 181 Agriculture and industry 182 Late Iron Age to early Roman pastoral farming 182 Arable farming 184 Early Roman pastoral farming 184 Middle to late Roman pastoral farming 184 Industrial activities 185 Pottery kiln sites in the Upper Nene Valley 185 Pottery kilns from Bozeat Quarry 186 Location 186 Date 189 Kiln forms 189 Products 189 Kindling 190 Bozeat pottery and markets 190 Pottery kilns in areas adjacent to the Upper Nene Valley 190 Human burials from cAD30 to late 2nd century AD (Periods 3.1 and 3.2) 191 Dog burials 194 Period 4 Early to middle Anglo-Saxon 194 Medieval and later land use at Bozeat 195 Bibliography 196 Iron Age,Roman,Excavation,Northamptonshire,Commercial Archaeology,Bozeat Quarry