RICKe First Village Cin Northamptonshire Contributors ext by Andrew Mudd and Rob Maseeld, with contributions from Ann TWoodward, Andy Chapman and Peter Ellis Reconstruction drawings by Mark Gridley Photography by sta of Cotswold Archaeology and MOLA Northampton (formerly Northamptonshire Archaeology); Prologis; Aerial-Cam Graphics by Lucy Martin, Matt Pearson and Daniel Bashford Design by Lucy Martin, Aleksandra Osinska and Andrew Mudd Printed by AJ Green Printing Ltd, Gloucester Published by Cotswold Archaeology in association with RPS Group on behalf of Prologis © Cotswold Archaeology and RPS Group PLC 2014 Front and back covers: Artist’s impression of the site from the east c. 200 BC (Mark Gridley, Carbonmade) The site of Crick Covert Farm Long Dole Watling Street county boundary The northern part of the site in 2013 looking east. Introduction N he construction of the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, to the west Tof Crick in Northamptonshire, over the past 20 years, has led to archaeological discoveries that are transforming our understanding of the pre-Roman Iron Age landscape. e density of settlement uncovered invites a comparison with an extended village – a remarkable discovery and one totally unexpected when the development of this major infrastructure project started. N Prologis is proud to be associated with this extraordinary archaeological site and to have sponsored the analysis of these excavations leading to the story related here. Mark Shepherd Prologis Watling Street Covert Farm WARWICKSHIRE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Long Dole Crick Hotel Nortoft Lane Site area without settlement The Lodge Iron Age and Roman settlement county boundary 0 1km Site location he excavations took place within a 178-hectare area of land on the border of TNorthamptonshire and Warwickshire, with Leicestershire lying just 4 km to the north. It is a watershed region of clay uplands capped with occasional outcrops of glacially-derived sands and gravels. The possible northern entrance to the It is within this rather damp and unpromising landscape that one of the largest settlement through a Iron Age settlements in the country was revealed. e area of settlement gap in the perimeter comprised ve blocks of farmsteads encompassing a small valley through which embankment, with Clion Brook ows northward to join the headwaters of the Warwickshire Avon. Long Dole (right) and Covert Farm (left). Cattle e largest of these at Covert Farm (Crick) was almost continuous with Long Dole are being taken from to the north and Crick Hotel to the south. To the south lay another settlement at the core pastureland e Lodge, while a linear settlement at Norto Lane (Kilsby) anked the valley to to summer floodplain the west. ey formed a curve of farmsteads overlooking the valley and bounded, meadows down the at least in part, by an embankment. valley. Bronze Age cremations and loomweight pit here were traces of human Toccupation as far back as the Neolithic period (c 4000 – 2500 BC) in the form of occasional fragments of pottery and intwork from Covert Farm. Later, in the early Bronze Age, a cremation burial was made in a small pit at Norto Lane. e cremated bone, which had been burnt white and was very fragmentary, represented the remains of an adult and a child and was dated by radiocarbon to 1976 – 1868 BC. e tradition of burial here continued into later centuries. Seven Bronze Age cylindrical more cremation burials of both adults loomweight in a small and children a little further west yielded radiocarbon dates in the range 1600 pit. – 1400 BC, so it seems that the site was used for burial on an intermittent basis during the Bronze Age. Rather than being contained within urns, the bone had been collected and placed directly within small pits. Fragments of charcoal with the bone show that oak was the fuel used for the pyre. Oak was normally used as it burns at a consistently high temperature necessary for complete cremation (over 800° C). Flax plant and seed capsules. Although Another Bronze Age ‘burial’ of perhaps comparable wool was a common signicance was that of a complete cylindrical clay material for textiles loomweight, which had been placed in a small pit. ere was by the Bronze Age, a lot of charcoal associated with it, unusually comprising flax has a much mostly seeds of ax. It is likely that ax was cultivated nearby, earlier usage. but since no Bronze Age settlement was apparent, it seems The stems that burning and burial may have been a commemorative would have practice like the cremation rite in this location. A ax seed been retted was dated by radiocarbon to 1426 – 1281 BC. (soaked), scutched (beaten), hackled (combed) and then woven on a warp- weighted loom to produce linen. Bronze Age burnt pit and waterhole ronze Age remains were also present Bon the lower land to the north of the cremations. Here, a large waterhole, was contemporary with a nearby trough containing burnt stones and charcoal. e complete absence of pottery or other artefacts makes it dicult to understand what the trough was for. It was probably a temporary cooking site, but it may have been used for other purposes needing heat and water. e waterhole may have provided water for both people and livestock. It contained pollen grains, well preserved Bronze Age trough in the damp, clay sediment. At the base, in a layer containing charcoal, the pollen containing burnt stone indicated that this was a deposit of burnt grasses or cereals. Above it the pollen and wood charcoal, was dominated by oak, with lime and hazel also present. Oats and barley pollen associated with a were also present, demonstrating cultivation quite locally. is woodland horizon waterhole. Scale 1m. was dated by radiocarbon to 1500 – 1322 BC. Higher up in the prole were more light-loving species such as hazel and more grassland - with grasses, fat hen, thistles, plantains, dandelions, daisies and buttercups. is sequence shows that the clearance of woodland and the cultivation of cereals was taking place in the area from the mid second millennium BC. Section through the waterhole, 2m deep, showing the column sample taken for pollen analysis. The sequence of local pollen assemblage zones (LPAZ) indicate progressive woodland clearance, as the LPAZ 155-3 waterhole slowly filled with sediment. LPAZ 155-2 LPAZ 155-1 LPAZ 154-3 column sample LPAZ 154-2 for pollen grains LPAZ 154-1 Iron Age settlement ettlement around the rim of the valley began to be established in the early Iron Age, from about 500 SBC, and may have started with a partial enclosure of the valley head by a boundary ditch. ere is wider evidence of formal division of the land in Northamptonshire starting in the early Iron Age as remnants of the wild landscape were cleared for farming and areas of earlier settlement became more crowded. e extent and nature of the settlement is much clearer in the following century. From about 400 BC until about 100 BC the settlement was at its greatest extent, and was formed by clusters of roundhouses, shelters and enclosures constructed for dwellings, storage, managing livestock and other activities. Each cluster may have been the dwelling of an extended family, or other small group, engaged principally in mixed farming along with cras such as ironworking. At its peak the settlement comprised around 100 circular buildings across the ve sites, of which between one third and one half are likely to have been family residences, so the settlement housed an estimated population of 250 – 400 people. is ‘multi-focal village’ had at its core an area of around 100 hectares of valley pasture. is is likely to have formed a common for grazing. Arable land presumably fringed the village on its upland side. View from the Iron Age settlement at Nortoft Lane looking north across the clayland. The settlement clings to a gravelly ridge. A roundhouse eaves-drip gully is being excavated in the foreground. Medieval plough furrow cross the whole area DIRFT 3 Zone II ?common grazing land Small Scored Ware jar, typical of the middle Iron Age of the region Bronze Age waterhole Nortoft Lane previous page The scarcity of grain photo location storage pits or structures and the damp nature of the clayland, indicate that pastoral farming was the mainstay of the economy. The size of this community is clear evidence of the success of farming and trading 00 500m here over several hundred years. N Site Map Covert Farm Long Dole course of Watling Street Crick Hotel John Samuels Evaluation (outside DIRFT) The Iron Age settlement as revealed by excavation The Lodge and geophysical survey. The plan shows the minimum extent of the settled area, which is of several phases but almost exclusively Iron Age in date. The large open area Roman of lowland in the middle 00 500m settlement may have been for common grazing. Iron Age farming - animals he enclosure of grazing land in the valley gives an Bones of Iron Age cattle Tindication of the importance of animal husbandry from Crick Hotel (left) to the Iron Age farmers at Crick. Animal bones were not with post-Roman well preserved due to the naturally slightly acidic ground examples (right) conditions, but some bones of cattle, sheep, horse and pig were recovered. Cattle were predominant on all sites, although Covert Farm also showed a high proportion of horses (20%) for some of the time. e larger ditched enclosures of around 20 metres across may have been cattle corrals. Horn core from a bull Iron Age cattle and horses were small animals. Cattle were the size of the present Dexter breed and all horses were pony sized. One animal from Crick Hotel had an estimated withers height of 1.26 metres – similar to an Exmoor pony.