Description
Book SynopsisBetween 2002 and 2014 MOLA Northampton carried out evaluation and excavation work over an area of approximately 49.65ha ahead of mineral extraction for the quarry at the Manor Pit, Baston, Lincolnshire.
The earliest activity dated to the Neolithic with the first occupation dating to the early Bronze Age, but it was within the middle Bronze Age that significant occupation took place within the site. Part of a large co-axial field system was recorded over an area approximately c800m long and up to 310m wide. Cropmarks and the results from other archaeological excavations suggest the field system continued beyond Manor Pit for c4km and was up to 1km wide. The field system was a well-planned pastoral farming landscape at a scale suggesting that cattle and other animals were being farmed for mass trade.
The site was reoccupied in the early 2nd century AD when two adjacent Roman settlements were established. One of the settlements was arranged along a routeway which led from the Car Dyke whilst the other settlement connected to this routeway by a long straight boundary. In both settlements there were a series of fields/enclosures situated in a largely open environment, with some evidence for cultivation, areas of wet ground and stands of trees. Well/watering holes lay within these enclosures and fields indicating that stock management was a key component of the local economy.
In the later medieval period a trackway ran across the site, associated with which was a small enclosure, which perhaps contained fowl. During the early post-medieval period the land was subject to a final period of enclosure, with a series of small rectilinear fields established aligned with Baston Outgang Road, forming the basis of the current landscape.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Project background
Location, topography and geology
Cropmarks and archaeological excavations
Previous site investigations within Baston Manor Pit
Excavation areas 2006-2014
Methodology
Site phasing
Chapter 2 Archaeological results Period 1, earlier prehistoric activity
Period 2, early to middle Bronze Age
Period 3, Roman settlement and boundary (2nd to 4th centuries)
Period 4, medieval and post-medieval land use
Undated features
Chapter 3 Finds Worked flint –
Yvonne Wolframm-Murray Prehistoric pottery –
Sarah Percival Roman pottery –
Margaret Darling, Ian Rowlandson and H G Fiske with samian reports by Felicity C Wild and Gwladys Monteil Writing on pottery vessels –
R S O Tomlin Medieval and post-medieval pottery –
Paul Blinkhorn Coins –
Ian Meadows and Paul Clements Small finds -
Tora Hylton with a report on a Bronze Age knife by Matthew G Knight Middle Bronze Age loomweights –
Pat Chapman Querns –
Andy Chapman Slag –
Andy Chapman Ceramic tile and brick –
Pat Chapman Stone –
Pat Chapman Fired clay –
Pat Chapman Roman glass –
Claire Finn Worked wood –
Michael Bamford with identifications to taxa by Steve Allen Radiocarbon dates –
Rob Atkins Chapter 4 Environmental evidence and human and faunal remains Human skeletal remains –
Helen Webb and Chris Chinnock The mammal, bird and amphibian bones –
Philip L Armitage Environmental evidence from the southern excavation area and the far western part of the northern excavation area (BMP06-08) –
Enid Allison, Lucy Allott, Robert Batchelor, Alex Brown and John Giorgi Environmental evidence from the northern excavation area (BMP09-14) –
Val Fryer Chapter 5 Discussion Period 1: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic
Period 2.1 Early Bronze Age
Period 2.2 Middle Bronze Age
Period 3: Roman
Period 4: Medieval
Period 5: Post-medieval
Bibliography
