Incubator Building Alconbury Weald Cambridgeshire Post-Excavation Assessment for Buro Four on behalf of Urban & Civic CA Project: 669006 CA Report: 13385 CHER Number: 3861 June 2013 Incubator Building Alconbury Weald Cambridgeshire Post-Excavation Assessment CA Project: 669006 CA Report: 13385 CHER Number: 3861 Authors: Jeremy Mordue, Supervisor Jonathan Hart, Publications Officer Approved: Martin Watts, Head of Publications Signed: ……………………………………………………………. Issue: 01 Date: 25 June 2013 This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report entirely at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission. © Cotswold Archaeology Unit 4, Cromwell Business Centre, Howard Way, Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes, MK16 9QS t. 01908 218320 e. [email protected] 1 Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire: Post-Excavation Assessment © Cotswold Archaeology CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 4 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 5 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 6 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 6 4 RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 7 5 FACTUAL DATA AND STATEMENTS OF POTENTIAL ..................................... 10 6 SUMMARY STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL ........................................................ 15 7 STORAGE AND CURATION .............................................................................. 16 8 UPDATED AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................. 16 9 PUBLICATION ................................................................................................... 18 10 TASK LIST ......................................................................................................... 18 11 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 20 APPENDIX 1: THE POTTERY BY E.R. MCSLOY ........................................................... 25 APPENDIX 2: FIRED CLAY AND DAUB BY E.R. MCSLOY ........................................... 27 APPENDIX 3: WORKED BONE AND ANTLER BY E.R. MCSLOY ................................. 27 APPENDIX 4: METALWORK BY E.R. MCSLOY ............................................................. 28 APPENDIX 5: LITHICS BY A. CRAWFORD AND E.R. MCSLOY ................................... 29 APPENDIX 6: GLASS BY E.R. MCSLOY ........................................................................ 29 APPENDIX 7: CERAMIC BUILDING MATERIAL (CBM) BY A. CRAWFORD AND E.R. MCSLOY ............................................................................................................ 29 APPENDIX 8: ANIMAL BONE BY JONNY GEBER ......................................................... 30 2 Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire: Post-Excavation Assessment © Cotswold Archaeology APPENDIX 9: PLANT MACROFOSSIL AND CHARCOAL REMAINS BY SARAH COBAIN ........................................................................................................................... 33 APPENDIX 10: OASIS REPORT FORM ......................................................................... 42 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Site location plan, showing archaeological features (1:500) Fig. 3 Plan of the Iron Age features (1:250) Fig. 4 Plan of the Roman features (1:250) Fig. 5 Plan of the medieval, post-medieval and modern features (1:250) Fig. 6 Photograph: pre-excavation view of the site, looking north Fig. 7 Photograph: Iron Age ring-ditch 450, looking south-east Fig. 8 Photograph: Iron Age boundary ditch 358, cut by Roman boundary ditch terminal 472, looking east Fig. 9 Photograph: Iron Age cobbled surface 301, cut by Romano ditch 151, looking south-west Fig. 10 Photograph: Roman boundary ditch 472, partially excavated, looking south-west Fig. 11 Photograph: Iron Age antler object (possible toggle) Fig. 12 Photograph: Middle Bronze Age side-looped bronze spearhead fragment 3 Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire: Post-Excavation Assessment © Cotswold Archaeology SUMMARY Site Name: Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald Location: Cambridgeshire NGR: TL 1985 7655 Type: Excavation Date: February 2013 Location of archive: To be deposited with Cambridgeshire County Archaeological Store Site Code: STUALZ13A CHER Number: 3861 An archaeological excavation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in February 2013 at the request of Buro Four (on behalf of Urban & Civic) at the Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire. An area of 0.22ha was excavated. Features dating to the Middle to Late Iron Age and Roman periods, up to the early 3rd century AD, were identified, along with evidence of medieval and post-medieval agricultural activity and a small number of modern remains. For the earlier periods, evidence for settlement in the form of at least one roundhouse and a finds assemblage typical of rural occupation was found. The survival of the features was good, probably due to their preservation from ploughing resulting from their location within an airfield. The full extents of the Iron Age and Roman sites were not revealed, but enough evidence was recovered to indicate both that the site seems to have been occupied continuously during these periods and that it was abandoned in the early 3rd century AD. This document presents a quantification and assessment of the evidence recovered from the excavation, and identifies its potential for further analysis and publication. 4 Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire: Post-Excavation Assessment © Cotswold Archaeology 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 During February 2013 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological excavation of the footprint of the Incubator Building and adjacent roadway, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire, (centred on NGR: TL 1985 7655; Fig. 1). The work was undertaken at the request of Buro Four on behalf of Urban & Civic. CgMs Consulting provided archaeological consultancy advice to Buro Four throughout the duration of the project which was undertaken to meet the requirements of an archaeological condition attached to planning permission for Enabling Works for the Alconbury Enterprise Zone (1102094FUL; Condition 8). 1.2 The archaeological work was undertaken with the approval of the Historic Environment Team, Cambridgeshire County Council (HETCCC) on behalf of Huntingdonshire District Council. The fieldwork followed best practice as set out in the Standard and Guidance for Archaeological Excavation issued by the Institute for Archaeologists (2008), Standards for Field Archaeology in the East of England (Gurney 2003), Management of Archaeological Projects II (EH 1991) and Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment. The MoRPHE Project Managers’ Guide (EH 2006). The fieldwork was monitored by Andy Thomas (HETCCC). Location, topography and geology 1.3 The excavation area, hereafter referred to as ‘the site’, comprised the footprint of the Incubator Building and part of an adjacent new roadway, a broadly rectangular area of 0.22ha within the Alconbury Enterprise Zone (Figs 1 and 2). The site was formerly part of Alconbury Airfield and was partly occupied by a horseshoe-shaped blast mound surrounding a concrete airfield building which lay to the immediate west of the site. The building and mound had been removed prior to the excavation, immediately prior to which the site was under turf. 1.4 The site and its environs are essentially flat at 49m AOD, and lie on Oxford Clay overlain by superficial deposits of Boulder Clay (BGS 2013). Archaeological background 1.5 Alconbury Airfield has been subject to a series of archaeological investigations over the last 15 years. These have included archaeological desk-based assessments (ULAS 1998; CgMs 2011a), an assessment of the airfield and its historic buildings (CgMs 2011b), geophysical surveys (GSB 2000; ASUD 2006), 5 Incubator Building, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire: Post-Excavation Assessment © Cotswold Archaeology an aerial photographic assessment (APS 1998) and trial trench evaluations (CCCAFU 2001; OAE 2012). 1.6 These investigations showed the site to lie within an area of archaeological potential. A Roman building and associated remains were found near Hermitage Wood, 0.6km north of the site, and a Roman coffin and quern stone were found at Alconbury House, 200m to its south. Ermine Street, the Roman road from Durovigutum (Godmanchester) and Durobrivae (Water Newton), follows the line of the A1, B1043 and B1090 and thus ran close to the south-west of the site. 1.7 Evidence for Anglo-Saxon activity in the vicinity is sparse. A former medieval moated manor was located near Hermitage Wood but, until the development of the airfield in the 1930/40s, the site was largely in agricultural use and the aerial photographic assessment identified ridge and furrow remains within it (APS 1998). 1.8 The 2012 trial trench evaluation included trenches within and around the footprint of the Incubator Building (trenches 3–7). Trenches 6 and 7 contained