Data from an Archaeological Mitigation at Ryknield Street, Streethay, Staffordshire, 2019 (HS2 Phase One)
High Speed Two Ltd., Wessex Archaeology, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5284/1129141. How to cite using this DOI
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This work is licensed under a The Open Government Licence (OGL).
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 5938
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1129141
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This collection comprises image, report, site record, spreadsheet, GIS and CAD data from an Archaeological Mitigation at Ryknield Street, Streethay, Staffordshire. The work was undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in 2019.
The excavation revealed and recorded archaeological remains thought to represent part of a medium‐sized enclosure and outlying activity possibly relating to a Bronze Age settlement. The earliest datable evidence from the mitigation area was several sherds of quartzite‐ tempered ware pottery possibly dating to the Early Neolithic period. The most significant features included an inverted urned cremation burial of Early Bronze Age date on the eastern edge of the mitigation area and a series of curvilinear ditches in the south of the mitigation area forming part of an enclosure or enclosures. Two pits in the north‐west corner of the mitigation area contained cremated human bone and pottery dating to the Middle Bronze Age, and there were scattered pits in the north and west of the mitigation area. Also of interest were curvilinear gullies and pit alignments set at 90 degrees potentially forming a rectangular structure, although no complete footprint of a potential structure was visible, and this interpretation is speculative.
The urned cremation burial was located approximately 30 metres south‐east of a cluster of Bronze Age pits identified during an earlier archaeological evaluation. The burial was lifted intact and later excavated under laboratory conditions, with the burial found to comprise the truncated remains of a Collared Urn of Early Bronze Age date containing cremated bone belonging to an adult. The enclosure ditches, gullies and pits and associated pottery and flint are indicative of prehistoric occupation activity possibly as early as the Early Neolithic and into the Bronze Age. The urned and unurned cremation burials are evidence of funerary activity taking place on the mitigation area in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Two of the enclosure ditches each supplied a single sherd of Romano‐British pottery. The sherds, which were heavily abraded and therefore unlikely to be in primary contexts, cannot be taken as firm dating evidence for the ditches and are interpreted instead as intrusive.
Several sherds of Romano‐British pottery were also recovered from ploughsoil during test pitting. Although the mitigation area is located close to the Roman road of Ryknield Street, no other evidence of Roman activity was recorded during the mitigation. The overall stratigraphic sequence is as well understood as it can be. Further stratigraphic analysis has no potential to enhance the understanding of the sequence of activity within the mitigation areas.
The archive comprises the digital records and files created during the Mitigation at Ryknield Street and the subsequent post-excavation assessment and analysis. It is also including paper records, photographic records, graphics, artefacts, ecofacts and digital data. The archive of these investigations is currently (as of May 2023) held at the offices of Wessex Archaeology in Sheffield.
