A Neolithic And Bronze Age Landscape In Northamptonshire

The Raunds Area Project investigated more than 20 Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in the Nene Valley. From c 5000 BC to the early 1st millennium cal BC a succession of ritual mounds and burial mounds were built as settlement along the valley sides increased and woodland was cleared. Starting as a regular stopping-place for flint knapping and domestic tasks, first the Long Mound, and then Long Barrow, the north part of the Turf Mound and the Avenue were built in the 5th millennium BC. With the addition of the Long Enclosure, the Causewayed Ring Ditch, and the Southern Enclosure, there was a chain of five or six diverse monuments stretched along the river bank by c 3000 cal BC. Later, a timber platform, the Riverside Structure, was built and the focus of ceremonial activity shifted to the Cotton 'Henge', two concentric ditches on the occupied valley side. From c 2200 cal BC monument building accelerated and included the Segmented Ditch Circle and at least 20 round barrows, almost all containing burials, at first inhumations, then cremations down to c 1000 cal BC, by which time two overlapping systems of paddocks and droveways had been laid out. Finally, the terrace began to be settled when these had gone out of use, in the early 1st millennium cal BC. This second volume of the Raunds Area Project, published as a CD, comprises the detailed reports on the environmental archaeology, artefact studies, geophysics and chronology.

The Raunds Area Project investigated more than 20 Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in the Nene Valley. From c 5000 BC to the early 1st millennium cal BC a succession of ritual mounds and burial mounds were built as settlement along the valley sides increased and woodland was cleared. Starting as a regular stopping-place for flint knapping and domestic tasks, first the Long Mound, and then Long Barrow, the north part of the Turf Mound and the Avenue were built in the 5th millennium BC. With the addition of the Long Enclosure, the Causewayed Ring Ditch, and the Southern Enclosure, there was a chain of five or six diverse monuments stretched along the river bank by c 3000 cal BC. Later, a timber platform, the Riverside Structure, was built and the focus of ceremonial activity shifted to the Cotton 'Henge', two concentric ditches on the occupied valley side. From c 2200 cal BC monument building accelerated and included the Segmented Ditch Circle and at least 20 round barrows, almost all containing burials, at first inhumations, then cremations down to c 1000 cal BC, by which time two overlapping systems of paddocks and droveways had been laid out. Finally, the terrace began to be settled when these had gone out of use, in the early 1st millennium cal BC.

A record of the National Mapping Programme project in Northamptonshire. It recovered and mapped archaeological evidence from field systems, through settlement remains, to funerary monuments, and ranges from the Neolithic to the 20th century.

This publication presents the pre-Iron Age aspects of the Raunds Area Project, which between 1985 and 1993 investigated some 3.5km of the floor of the Nene valley in north east Northamptonshire.

These essays examine for the first time the relationship between landscape and prehistoric monuments across Europe, placing the issue in a regional and intellectual context.

This volume reports the results of intermittent archaeological mitigation works for the A43 Corby Link Road, Northamptonshire, undertaken by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) between June 2012 to October 2013. Evidence was uncovered relating to Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlements.

Archaeological work on land at Upton Park south of Weedon Road, Northampton, uncovered, among other evidence, two Bronze Age/early Iron Age sinuous pit alignments. The extensive work and examination of the two pit alignments at Upton has allowed a typology of the variable areas of pits (and related ditches) to be postulated.

Between 1990 and 1998, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) undertook a series of archaeological excavations within Wollaston Quarry covering an area of 116ha. Eight excavation areas and a watching brief were undertaken. The proximity of the River Nene and at least four palaeochannels formed the dominant natural landscape features. This dynamic environment affected settlement and land use throughout prehistoric and Roman periods. Seventeen pits, largely in small groups, were identified containing early Neolithic to late Neolithic/early Bronze Age pottery. Some of these features were located within the area of the palaeochannels. Later, of especial interest was a notable collection of eleven different late Bronze Age to early Iron Age pit alignments, which were part of a co-axial landscape over an area of 2.5km. There was also a small area of domestic activity reflected by pits dating to the early Iron Age as well as two large watering holes in other locations. The pit alignment boundaries influenced subsequent settlement from the middle Iron Age to the late Roman periods. While individual settlements and related agricultural enclosures changed location over time, they followed the same alignments as the earlier pit alignments suggesting some form of continuity for over 800 years. In the middle to late Iron Age four separate farmsteads were established of which two overlaid the former pit alignments. All four comprised sub-rectangular enclosed farmsteads with internal roundhouses and paddocks. Towards the end of the Iron Age at least one of the middle Iron Age settlements was abandoned, while at roughly the same time an unenclosed settlement was created nearby which continued to the late Roman period. Overall, within the quarry, six new late Iron Age and Roman settlements were established and two more have been preserved without excavation. In the middle Roman period, there was extensive and organised agriculture activity which included two vineyards in two different parts of the site as well as two areas of paddock type enclosures. This level of planning suggests significant investment and could reflect the development by a villa estate. In the early to middle Saxon period there were four different areas of activity which comprised a sunken featured building, pits and a late 7th century grave of a high-status Anglian warrior burial (the latter has previously been reported on separately).