Title: |
A Bronze Age monument complex and Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement at Cambridge Road, Bedford: Excavation 2004 - 2005 |
Series: |
MOLA Northampton unpublished report series
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Downloads: |
molanort1-250081_1.pdf (31 MB)
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Download
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Licence Type: |
ADS Terms of Use and Access
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DOI |
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Publication Type: |
Report (in Series)
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Abstract: |
Northamptonshire Archaeology (now MOLA Northampton) carried out open area excavation on 14.45ha of land. Early Neolithic flint and a polished stone axe was possibly related to the nearby Cardington causewayed enclosure. Two Early Bronze Age ring ditches sat on a gravel ridge between the River Great Ouse and Elstow Brook. A small round barrow, 6.5m diameter, enclosed a deep grave containing the crouched burial of a woman within an oak-lined chamber. Within a nearby ring ditch, 30m diameter, a pit containing three crouched burials, probably within an oak chamber, is radiocarbon dated to the early in the Middle Bronze Age. East of the large ring ditch, an L-shaped ditch with a central opening, radiocarbon dated to the Middle/Late Bronze Age transition, is perhaps the final feature of the monument group, paralleling similar features at other contemporary ring ditch monuments. Shallow rectilinear ditches formed a land boundary extending north and south from the Bronze Age ring ditch, and other contemporary ditches were remnants of a rectilinear field system. A contemporary waterhole produced waterlogged wood and the final fill contained decorated pottery of the Early Iron Age. Three ditches formed a Middle/Late Iron Age boundary ditch system, also aligned north-south, with a nearby rectangular enclosure. Use of the boundary system continued into the Roman period, when it defined the western limit of an extensive Romano-British ladder settlement, dated to the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Only the northern fringe lay within the excavated area, but this contained a dense system of successive boundary ditches, along with pits, a stone-lined well and an inhumation burial. Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured buildings are dated to the 5th-6th centuries, and a middle Saxon mausoleum containing a single inhumation with a second inhumation outside is dated to the late 8th century. Thereafter the land was under agricultural use, with remnant furrows of the medieval ridge and furrow system. |
Author: |
A Chapman
P Chapman
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Publisher: |
MOLA Northampton
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Other Person/Org: |
Historic England (OASIS Reviewer)
Please note: this record has been validated by-proxy by Historic England.
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Year of Publication: |
2016
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Locations: |
Site: |
Cambridge Road |
County: |
Bedfordshire |
District: |
Bedford |
Parish: |
EASTCOTTS |
Country: |
England |
Grid Reference: 507560, 248070 (Easting, Northing)
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Subjects / Periods: |
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Identifiers: |
OASIS Id: |
molanort1-250081 |
OBIB: |
16/76 |
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Note: |
A4, red spine, heat bonded, clear covers
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Source: |
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Relations: |
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Created Date: |
06 Nov 2017 |