Search results for ""Author Ian Meadows""

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) undertook evaluation and subsequent excavation at Wollaston Quarry, near Wellingborough through the 1990s. These excavations took place in advance of gravel extraction on land to the north and south of Hardwater Road, Wollaston. The archaeological work found Iron Age and Roman farms arranged along a single routeway and the remains of at least two Roman vineyards. A single late 7th century grave, the Pioneer burial, lay alongside a long-lived routeway at the southern end of the quarry, close to the floodplain and any burial mound would have overlooked the River Nene. The burial was an isolated feature; the only other Saxon artefacts recovered from other parts of the quarry were limited to two scatters of pottery and two fragments of small long brooch recovered by metal detection. All were located some distance from the grave. The Pioneer burial was adjacent to the south-western corner of the later Saxon Higham Hundred boundary where it meets the River Nene. It is probable the burial had originally been within a barrow, but no evidence was found for it. Within the grave there was an individual adult of slender build probably in their early to middle 20s equipped with a boar-crested iron helmet, a pattern-welded sword, a copper alloy hanging bowl with enamelled escutcheon, an iron knife, a copper alloy clothing hook and three iron buckles. The burial contained artefacts indicative of very high status, with the early to middle Saxon helmet being at the time only the fourth to have been recovered from a burial in England.

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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 pi

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