Continuing on in my naive  attempt to say something cogent about how the PAS has elucidated our understanding of the archaeology of the county in all periods, in this blog entry I’m going to summarise what we’ve learnt about the Bronze and Iron Ages.  At this point I should thank my brilliant volunteer assistant, Katie Robbins, who has put together all the background information for this survey.

Anyway, in my last post I discussed some of the more interesting finds from Stone Age Northamptonshire, but noted that our sample was rather small.  Turning to the Bronze Age and Iron Age, we might expect the finds to start coming in in more numbers at this point, but they don’t. To date, we have only 62 records relating to the Bronze Age, and 182 from the Iron Age.  To understand these, we have to put them in perspective by considering what we already know (or think we know) about the later prehistoric archaeology of the county.

Evidence for burials during the Early Bronze Age is much more common and over three hundred round barrows have been identified by aerial photography, many of which have now been ploughed flat. The preference for unmarked cremation burials by the Middle and Late Bronze Age has meant that these sites have only been stumbled upon by accident.  Evidence of permanent settlement during the Bronze Age is also rare, with the remnants of roundhouses uncovered at Stanwick and Fengate probably belonging to small farmsteads surrounded by fields from crops and animals.  Northamptonshire, like much of lowland Britain, saw the introduction of iron-working between 800BC and 600BC. Evidence suggests that there was a growth in population at this time, as there was an expansion of agricultural production and an increase in domestic settlements. Many of these may have been within hillforts such as that at Hunsbury, known locally as Dane’s Camp, a site that remained in use until c.20BC. These hillforts would have been symbols of the power of the local ruler/chieftain and the centre of the county was probably occupied by a single dominant group. This was later absorbed by the Catuvellauni, a very powerful tribe in Britain at the end of the first millennium BC . This tribe organised a resistance against the first Roman invasion in 56BC,  but were forced to surrender two years later.  The lack of evidence for any significant military presence in the county after this time suggests that following the successful invasion of AD43, Roman rule was generally accepted.

So, to turn to the PAS finds,  Bronze Age hoards crop up all over the country, especially in the south-east, but Northamptonshire examples are few. We did have a fantastic founder’s hoard from near Northampton a few years back [NARC-77BD13], and the odd individual socketed or palstave axe [NARC-DFF9E8]; [NARC-5EBCB7] , dagger [NARC-7A1368] or pennanular ring [NARC-773944] does come in, but they are few and far between. Perhaps the hoarding ritual was less important up here than further south?  However, we do have a small number of flint objects from the Bronze Age, such as this barbed and tanged arrowhead [LEIC-B21932], which stand as testament to the day-to-day activities of people in Bronze Age Northants.

The Iron Age is almost as poorly represented as the Bronze Age. We have our fair share of Colchester brooches (NARC-CCA8B6), button-and-loop fasteners [NARC-DCD2F0], and coinage [NARC-99F1F6], with a number of good examples of staters and units of local ‘tribes’ such as the Corieltauvi, with those of Tasciovanus and Cunobelin [NARC-FEA435] particularly common. However, at best these date to the last years of pre-Roman Britain, and the rest of the Iron Age is largely unrepresented. Exceptions include this La Tene III brooch [NARC-9701C6], but nothing to match the beautiful Iron Age mirror discovered at Desborough in the 19th century.

Recently, we’ve had in this lovely Iron Age scabbard mount [NARC-9BA9D1], which might relate to military or ritual activity, or simply be a symbol of local status.  Whatever, it is a beautiful and unusual find.

However, perhaps the stars of Iron Age Northamptonshire are this beehive quern from Chapel Brampton [NARC-B9F8A6], and glass beads from Benefield [NARC2612] and Oundle [LIN-3A9556].  All in all, with a few exceptions, the PAS in Northants may not have produced large numbers of high profile, astoundingly beautiful later prehistoric finds, but the distribution maps that we are now beginning to piece together are starting to tell us a little more about the organisation of settlement in the region.  We have more Bronze Age hoards and Iron Age coins than were known before the PAS became active in the region, allowing us to speculate much more about belief, economics, and politics than was previously possible.  Future research projects will no doubt utilise PAS data to look into these aspects of prehistoric life, and these finds once again make clear the benefit of working with detectorists.

Please keep coming back, and stand by for the Romans!