Monograph 6 - Cataractonium: Establishment, Consolidation and Retreat.

Stuart Ross and Cath Ross

Cataractonium: Establishment, Consolidation and Retreat is the third of three major monographs presenting the outstanding archaeological investigations for Highways England’s upgrade of 19km of the A1 between Leeming and Barton in North Yorkshire from 2013–17. It charts developments at Cataractonium from its establishment during the late 1st century AD to the eventual withdrawal of the Roman army from Britain in the early 5th century, and presents evidence for Early Anglo-Saxon occupation of the walled town. The emergence of neighbouring Roman roadside settlements and their relationships to Cataractonium is also explored.

The Roman settlement of Cataractonium occupied an imposing location above the strategically important bridged crossing of the River Swale by the main transport route north, Dere Street. Established as a military vicus, the settlement developed into an extensive and wealthy fortified small town, with far-reaching trade connections providing access to rare and exotic items from the Mediterranean region and North Africa. For over 400 years, Cataractonium played a crucial role as a military base consolidating the position of the northern frontier and serving as a regional economic hub of trade and administration.

Due to the scale and significance of the Roman remains uncovered, Cataractonium: Establishment, Consolidation and Retreat is presented in two volumes. Volume 1 brings the excavated evidence together in a chronological narrative, while volume 2 sets out the associated artefactual and environmental evidence and concludes with an overall synthesis.

This monograph can be downloaded with no charge from the Archaeology Data Service

 

Monograph 5 - Contact, Concord and Conquest: Britons and Romans at Scotch Corner

Dave Fell

Contact, Concord and Conquest: Britons and Romans at Scotch Corner is the second of three major monographs detailing the remarkable archaeological excavations carried out for Highways England’s 2013–17 upgrade of the A1 motorway between Leeming and Barton in North Yorkshire. 

The exceptional work at Scotch Corner was heralded by Historic England as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries of the decade. The book examines the character of native society, settlement and economic activity at Scotch Corner at the point of first contact with Rome around the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. It reveals the role of precious metalworking at a time of relative peace and unprecedented prosperity during the early 1st century as native elites negotiated political concord with the invader and received gifts of exotic objects and foods. Finally, the book describes the engineered roads, desertion of the settlement and other evidence for Roman conquest at Scotch Corner, which has extensive implications for how the process of annexation of northern England is understood.

This monograph can be downloaded with no charge from the Archaeology Data Service.

 

Monograph 4 – Death, Burial and Identity: 3000 years of death in the Vale of Mowbray

Greg Speed and Malin Holst

Death, Burial and Identity is the first of three monographs that present the results of 2013–17 excavations between Leeming and Barton in North Yorkshire in conjunction with upgrading 19km of the A1 to motorway status. The volume examines the burial record from the road scheme—308 human burials from 14 locations, which ranged in date from the Early Bronze Age to the Anglo- Saxon period.

The concept of identity over time and place formed a major research theme for the project. The Roman graves were furnished in a variety of ways and contained varying grave goods, and radiocarbon dating provided scientific dates for 151 burials spanning all periods. This evidence, alongside study of the human remains, has been drawn together to provide analysis of the developments in burial rites. Combined with stable isotope analysis and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates from Bainesse Cemetery, demographics, diet and changes in cemetery use have been explored to build a picture of the people who lived and died at these sites.

The Roman period burials present one of the largest and best-dated assemblages from northern England. The results from the A1 scheme complement other recent work examining variation in funerary tradition across Roman Britain, and as such are of national, if not international significance.

This monograph can be downloaded with no charge from the Archaeology Data Service.

 

Monograph 3 – A Roman Roadside Settlement at Healam Bridge: The Iron Age to Early Medieval Evidence

Cath Ambrey, David Fell, Richard Fraser, Stuart Ross, Greg Speed, Philip N. Wood

Evidence for pre-Roman Iron Age to post-Roman activity was revealed by archaeological works during construction to widen the A1 between Dishforth and Leeming Bar in North Yorkshire. Significant archaeological remains were excavated at Healam Bridge, the site of a Scheduled Monument encompassing a Roman settlement on Dere Street Roman road, midway between the walled towns of Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough) and Cataractonium (Catterick).

This two-volume set presents the results and discussion of the excavations and the environmental and human remains (Volume 1), and the artefactual assemblages (Volume 2). Evidence from Healam Bridge indicates activity from the early 2nd century AD into the Anglo-Saxon period. The position of the site astride the main Roman route to the north of England and Scotland was reflected in a wide range of pottery types and other finds, and activities such as iron-smithing may have served passing trade as much as the local community. A large animal bone assemblage suggested that horse-, possibly mule-, breeding was a significant aspect of the local economy throughout the Roman period.

This monograph can be downloaded from the Archaeology Data Service.

 

Monograph 2 – Life of Brine? Bronze Age and Later Discoveries at Marsh House Farm, Greatham, Hartlepool

David Fell and Gavin Robinson

Over the winter of 2012/13, a team from NAA recorded evidence of human activity along the fringe of the prehistoric and Roman salt marshes to the south-east of Greatham village, Hartlepool. This included funerary and settlement evidence spanning approximately 4000BC to AD410.

Flint tools and flakes of Mesolithic and Early Neolithic date represented the first direct evidence for hunter-gatherers in the Tees Estuary outside Hartlepool Bay. Early and later Bronze Age activity, probably including settlement of some permanence or longevity, was present closer to the marsh edge along a former channel. Later occupation evidence—a long-lived boundary and associated episodes of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement and field enclosure—occupied higher ground. There was no evidence for prehistoric salt winning at the site, but historical sources indicate that salt was claimed from the marshes throughout the medieval period, and deeper salt beds were exploited from the late 19th century until 1970.

Please email info@naaheritage.com to order this monograph, priced at £12.50 including postage.

 

Monograph 1 – Mitchell Laithes Farm, Ossett, West Yorkshire

Greg Speed

An excavation in 2007 at Mitchell Laithes Farm, Osset, West Yorkshire revealed archaeological remains from the earlier Neolithic to the post-Medieval period. The earliest evidence consisted of groups of pits and postholes with Neolithic pottery dated from the second quarter of the 4th millennium BC onwards. An undated circle of postholes may have represented a later Neolithic or Early Bronze Age timber circle. In the Early Bronze Age, a round barrow was built over three pits containing cremated human remains, one accompanied by an accessory vessel. A fourth cremation nearby was found inside a Collared Urn.

Iron Age activity was represented by pit digging, and by the later Iron Age or Romano-British period the area had been subdivided into small fields, with enclosures identified in the surrounding area by geophysical survey. Quantities of metalworking debris indicated that iron-smithing had taken place at the site during the Roman period. No subsequent activity was evident until the medieval period, during which time two quarry pits were dug. In the early post-medieval period, the land was more extensively farmed and resulted in ridge-and-furrow across the site.

Please email info@naaheritage.com to order this monograph, priced at £12.50 including postage.