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Archaeology Warwickshire
Excavation of an Iron Age settlement at Walton, Wellesbourne, 2000
Excavations were carried out in the summer of 2000 at Walton near Wellesbourne in advance of gas pipeline laying between Newbold Pacey and Honeybourne on behalf of MAF Pipelines and RSK ENSR for Transco. The excavations were directed by Stuart Palmer and a final report on the work was produced in 2006: Palmer, S C, 2006 Excavations within an Iron Age settlement at Walton, Wellesbourne, in Thompson, P, & Palmer, S C, Excavation of Iron Age, Romano-British and medieval settlements on the Transco Newbold Pacey to Honeybourne gas pipeline in 2000, Warwickshire Museum Report 0605.
Storage pits being excavated within the pipe trench.
Introduction Geophysical survey undertaken along the pipeline route identified a number of possible archaeological sites including one at Walton on the wide second gravel terrace of the River Dene. Using a magnetometer it was possible to detect buried features with different magnetic properties to those of the surrounding soil, such as areas of burning or areas of human habitation. These anomalies were investigated in a series of trial trenches and a previously unknown Iron Age site was identified. Further excavation then took place along the line of the pipe trench. Additional magnetometer survey undertaken either side of the pipeline corridor showed that the site extended over a wide area in the surrounding fields.
Iron Age Settlement, Excavated areas and geophysical survey.
Pre-settlement activity Although primarily concerned with the Iron Age settlement, the excavations were able to establish that the location had been periodically visited since the late Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (c 6500 BC–4000 BC). At this time people lived mobile lives sustained by gathering wild foods and hunting fish and game. Evidence of their presence comes from a particular kind of flint core from which small, narrow blades had been struck or chipped; one such blade, known as a microlith, was found. Other flint cores and blades found were slightly later in style but indicate further visits by people throughout the Neolithic or New Stone Age (c 4000 BC–2200 BC), the period in which farming first developed and the first monuments were constructed. Two types of flint scraper, used to remove the fleshy residues from animal skins, were also found and these show that the intermittent visits continued into the Bronze Age (c 2200 BC–700 BC). A few Bronze Age pottery sherds were also unearthed and these may have survived either as heirlooms or in a rubbish midden from an earlier phase of settlement on the site, although they probably indicate short-lived seasonal occupation at this early date.
Flints: from left to right Mesolithic microlith, Mesolithic cores x 3, Neolithic core, Neolithic/Bronze Age side scraper, Neolithic blades x 2.
The Iron Age settlement The Iron Age settlement was divided by an east to west boundary ditch on which nearly all the other linear boundary features were aligned and it is reasonable to suppose that this was an early element of the site's layout. Although no houses were found in the areas excavated, the geophysical survey depicts a number of small, near-circular features that indicate where the footings of round-houses once stood. These houses would have been built of wood with either straw-thatched or turf roofs. They had no windows or chimney so the fires lit inside would have filled the atmosphere with smoke but keeping the occupants warm and dry.
The main boundary ditch crossing the pipeline trench being excavated in sections.
Some of the slightly larger enclosures were probably ringed with fences and used to keep animals safe overnight. We know the occupants kept cattle, sheep, horses and pigs because their bones were spread around the settlement, although most were found in the disused storage pits. Bones of garden birds and rodents were also found and these may also have been on the menu. They had little of what we would regard as luxury items and probably few metal tools as none were found during the excavation. A minimum of 40 pottery vessels were represented by the 824 broken sherds found and all these seem to have been ovoid or globular shaped cooking jars.
Iron Age pottery rim sherds.
The residents were farmers and probably lived in an extended family of close relatives. As well as raising animals they grew cereal crops such as wheat, barley and rye from which they were able to bake bread and brew beer. Two quernstone fragments were found which would have been used to grind the cereals into flour. Seed corn was stored over-winter in large, deep pits that were dug alongside the boundary ditch. When the pits were emptied they were filled with rubbish probably gathered from a nearby rubbish midden. It appears that this may have been a religious act, perhaps relating to fertility and rebirth and performed in one of the celebrations and festivals that would have been celebrated during the yearly agricultural cycle. Most of the finds recovered from the site came from these pits.
Fragment of quernstone.
The neck and thorax of a cow buried as an offering in an old storage pit.
The poorly preserved and un-sexed adult being excavated.
Three of the pits also contained human burials; an old man aged between 45 and 60, a teenage girl and the third aged between 20 and 35 but in too poor condition to determine sex. The majority of the population at that time were either cremated or left exposed to the elements when they died; burial in this way was probably a special occasion. These people may have been buried as religious offerings despite dying of natural causes. It may seem odd to us that people were buried along with household rubbish but it is possible that refuse was viewed differently than it is today. Returning it into the earth may have been important to ensure the fertility of the land and prosperity of the settlement.
Teenage girl buried in an old storage pit.
An old man buried in a storage pit.
The pits were found by the side of an unusual C-shaped enclosure that surrounded a mound of limestone rubble transported to the site from the hills beyond the valley. An area of burning discovered beneath the rubble is thought to be the site of very hot fire that had turned some material into a green coloured slag. It is possible that in this place other people were cremated before burial elsewhere.
Detail of the main boundary ditch, the pit group and the C-shaped enclosure.
Part of the C-shaped gully enclosing the limestone rubble in a trial trench.
The limestone rubble before excavation.
We can be reasonably sure of the dates between which people lived in the settlement because of the style of the pottery that they used. This can be matched with pottery found across the Midlands. These dates are now confirmed by scientific techniques such as radiocarbon dating. Dates obtained for the Walton settlement indicate most of the activity took place in the Middle Iron Age between 400 BC and 300 BC, although some activity occurred around 500 BC.
Part of the C-shaped gully within the pipe trench after excavation.
The local environmental setting The area immediately around the settlement was largely grassland with small areas of arable cultivation. Weed grasses such as annual meadow-grass, fescue, rye-grass and bromus were found along with sheep’s sorrel and fat hen to have been used as tinder for the cremation pyre, along with cereals including hulled barley, emmer or spelt wheat. The steeper valley sides were wooded much like today, although oak seems to have been the preferred wood for fuel in the settlement. Both fast and slow grown wood has been found suggesting that firewood was obtained from dense and more open woodland. Hazel and holly may have grown as understorey in the oak woodland but also in more open places as hazel nutshells were found which require sunlight to fruit. Scrubby or open land would have supported shrubby species such as blackthorn and hawthorn.
Archaeology in the Wellesbourne area and the route of the pipeline.
Post-settlement activity We do not know why the settlement was abandoned but it is quite a common occurrence over much of the country in this period for the foci of settlement to move. It may have occurred as generations died off or because of infestation or disease within the settlement. By the early part of the Roman occupation (c 43 AD - 410 AD) the site of the settlement had been incorporated into a field system and it is quite likely that it was farmed by the descendents of the earlier settlement. The medieval ridge and furrow ploughing was organised on the same axis as the main boundary ditch so it would seem that the present alignment of fields has not changed since the Iron Age.
Archaeology Warwickshire, Warwickshire Historic and Natural Environment The Butts, Warwick, CV34 4SS Tel: 01926 412280/412278 Fax: 01926 412974 E-mail: fieldarchaeology@warwickshire.gov.uk

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