Northamptonshire

More interesting Viking Age finds from Northants.

February 15th, 2008 by Steve Ashby

Â OK – I’m biased.Â I love Viking Age stuff.Â We don’t generally get a lot of it around here, but a few nice bits and pieces have come up recently.Â First, there was the lovely Late Saxon cloissonne enamelled brooch reported in 2007 (NARC-C34DE6; see blog entry below).Â Since then I’ve seen this beautiful late Viking Age (c.11th C) stirrup strap mount (pictured above; NARC-6C5583), and this probable ‘Norse’ bell (NARC-D9C172 ).

Both finds are interesting, yet poorly understood.Â The first belongs to a category of objects with clear Scandinavian artistic references, but yet is much more common in the south and west of England than the north and east (the latter being the area traditionally thought to be more heavily settled by Scandinavians).Â The second is an unusual ‘colonial’ artefact, perhaps with Hiberno-Norse (IE Irish Viking) connections; the type is unknown both in Scandinavia, and in England prior to the Viking Age.

Both finds are unusual for Northamptonshire, and continue to help archaeologists develop their understanding of the Midlands in the early medieval period.

Tags: anglo-scandinavian, late saxon, viking
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Education and Outreach

November 16th, 2007 by Steve Ashby

Hello all.Â It’s a long time since my last post, I know; I’ve been up to my eyeballs in finds recently.Â However, last week I did get the chance to get out and do some outreach work, as I was invited to come and work with a Brownie group in Nether Heyford.Â I took along my handling boxes and an intrepid assistant, and let the children get to grips with some prehistoric, Roman, and early medieval finds.Â We then let them draw some of the objects (you’d be amazed how well under-10s can draw retouch!), and make ‘finds records’ for them.Â We gave out prizes for the best drawings and descriptions, though on reflection, I decided that the annual report wasn’t a very good prize for an 8-year old.

I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot, and I hope I’ll be doing more of this in the future.Â Many thanks to the group organisers for inviting me along.

Â Â

Tags: brownies, outreach
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Public Lecture on Prehistoric Britain

October 9th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

Monday 26th November 2007.

Jeffery Room, Northampton Guildhall, Northampton.

Northamptonshire Archaeological Society welcomes Bill Boismier to give an annual public lecture entitled:

‘Fear and Loathing in the Middle Palaeolithic: Mammoths at Lynford Quarry, Norfolk.Â Neanderthal Hunting or Scavenging?

At Lynford Quarry, Norfolk, an old river channel contained the remains of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, horse, bison, wolf, red or arctic fox and brown bear, along with stone handaxes and other tools, all buried under two or three metres of sands and gravels.Â Well preserved middle Palaeolithic open-air sites are exceedingly rare in Europe, making Lynford of national and international importance.Â However, a key issue of debate is whether the evidence indicates that the Neanderthal population was systematically hunting mammoth, or whether they were being opportunistic, and scavenging the carcasses of dead mammoths.Â Bill Boismier directed the excavations at Lynford Quarry and has been preparing the report.Â He will provide us with a presentation of the results and discuss the interpretation of these important but contentious remains of our early ancestors.Â Come along and hear more direct from Bill.

Door and refrsehments from 6.45pm / NAS AGM from 7pm / Public Lecture from 7.15pm.

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Exhibition of Finds from South Northants and Bucks

September 28th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

On 23rd September. Mr John Marchant put on an exhibition of some of the archaeological andÂ paelaeontological finds he has collected during earth moving operations over thye last 40 years.Â Some of Mr Marchant’s finds are superb, and his collection of Roman coarseware pottery is astonishing.Â I have been working with Mr Marchant to record his finds, secure long term archiving for some of the collection, and help him to identify them for his own exhibition.Â Unfortunately, due to a prior commitment, I was unable to attend the event myself, but a fellow FLO (Ros Tyrrell) was kind enough to go and take a look (thanks to Ros for theÂ photos).

Â In addition to archaeological material, the exhibition also included militaria and social history collections, and really was a unique event.

Some of Mr Marchantâ€™s finds from the exhibition

The first visitorâ€¦

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Finds Recorded at Rally in East Northamptonshire

September 23rd, 2007 by Daniel Pett

Over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd September, the organisers of the Central Searchers detecting group were kind enough to invite me along to record finds at their rally in East Northants. I was lucky to have the help of Ros Tyrrell (FLO for Buckinghamshire) and Sally Worrell (Finds Advisor for Iron Age and Roman artefacts), and this, together with the forthcoming attitude of many detectorists, allowed us to record a large number of finds, with good findspot data for the majority.

The finds dated between the prehistoric and postmedieval periods, and included worked flints and pottery as well as metalwork. In particular the rally threw up plenty of Roman coins, as we expected it would, which will prove very useful in dating the site. By plotting these finds on a map we should be able to clarify the chronology of some of the area’s archaeology (identified by aerial photography). The finds will eventually be uploaded onto the PAS database, which will allow us to analyse the results statistically. Keep checking back to see what we find out…

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Finds Surgery and Q and A at CLASP AGM, Towcester

September 19th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

On Tuesday night I attended the annual general meeting of Northamptonshire’s umbrella group for community archaeology projects, CLASP (Community Landscape & Archaeology Survey Project). I was there to help identify and record any finds that people attending might have found, and also to answer questions regarding the P.A.S. and metal detecting in general. I met several members of the local community, including some who had brought along metalwork and pottery for identification, and I also spoke to local volunteers and group members, regarding future work with them.

The general meeting was very interesting, with two exciting lectures on (very) recent archaeological work in the area: Northamptonshire Archaeology’s excavation of the motte and bailey castle site at Bury Mount, and CLASP’s own geophysical, fieldwalking, and controlled metal detecting survey at Bannaventa. Both were extremely informative, and demonstrate the potential to considerably enhance our knowledge of the past in this part of country.

CLASP’s work is of particular relevance to the PAS, as it allows members of the local community to get involved in the process of increasing our understanding of local heritage. In particular, a local metal detecting group (NNPAST) has been involved in controlled survey of a number of sites in the area. This work has really demonstrated the potential of collaboration between metal detectorists and archaeologists, and shows what can be accomplished when survey is carried out in an organised, responsible manner.

For more information about CLASP, please visit http://www.claspweb.org.uk/ , and check back here for further updates.

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Heritage Weekend

September 19th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

On Sunday 9th September,Â I took part in an event at the newly re-established Wellingborough Museum.Â I was simply there to record any finds that people brought in, and to meet and talk with the public about the PAS.Â The event was a big success, and I spoke to a lot of local community members that I had not seen before, many of whom were unaware of the scheme’s work.Â If you came along, thank you!Â If you didn’t, I hope to meet you soon…

If you’d like to find out more about Wellingborough Museum, please go to: http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/museum/EM000061.htmlÂ

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Interesting finds from the Northampton Area

September 7th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

Handaxe

We’ve also recently had two nice finds in from the Gayton area, both recovered by members of the Northampton Detecting Association.Â The first is a lovely Late Saxon cloissonne brooch (NARC-C34DE6), featuring an intricate design using cells of coloured glass.Â The second, less spectacular on first sight, is equally interesting.Â It’s a rough flint handaxe (NARC-FD1537), probably dating to the Lower Palaeolithic (it is thus hundreds of thousands of years old).

Both finds are recorded on the database as ‘Finds of Note’.

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Nice Finds from South Northants

September 7th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

Greenstone adze
Thought you might be interested to hear about some of the more interesting finds that have come into me recently.Â Of particular interest is a collection of objects accumulated by a very alert finder over many years during the course of earthmoving work.Â These finds include a (complete!) late medieval/postmedieval purse frame (NARC-182644), as well as a lovely greenstone adze (NARC-180DE7), and a macehead (NARC-181793)Â made of red deer antler (just my kind of thing), both probably dating to the Neolithic period.

The finds are recorded on the database as ‘Finds of Note’.

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Welcome

September 7th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

Hello all!

This is my first post, just to let you know that we’re up and running. If you’re interested in knowing what’s going on at Northamptonshire PAS as it happens, please come back here regularly. And for those of you who wonder what I actually do all day…you’ll find the answer here (providing I get time to update it!)

So what have I been up to this last few weeks?

Well, a few weeks back I was at English Heritage’s Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall. Together with a number of other FLOs and Finds Advisors from around the country, I was helping to promote the PAS and the work we do, talking in particular about some of the constructive work that has been achieved when archaeologists have worked together with metal detectorists and other members of local communities. Over the weekend (two ten-hour days) we managed to talk to over 1400 people, including a lot of children, and hopefully we’ve planted a few seeds in the minds of the younger generation. In recent weeks I’ve also done a few talks for local groups from different demographics, which went well, and hopefully we’re managing to spread the message far and wide.

The following weekend (as the eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted), myself and a few other FLOs were recording finds at the Durobrivae metal detecting rally near Peterborough. If you squinted at the One Show for long enough you may have seen the back of my head. Anyway, it was hard work, but we managed to record a fair bit of material, and met a lot of detectorists and enthusiasts from around the country.

This last week I’ve been involved in more direct publicity work, with a double-page spread in Thursday’s Northampton Chronicle and Echo, and a smaller article in East Northamptonshire’s Nene Valley News. It’s all aimed at letting as many people as possible know that I’m here to help.

I’ve also just had a datasheet published for the Finds Research Group. This is a typology (a scheme for classifying and dating) bone and antler combs from the early medieval and medieval periods, and I hope that it will be used by archaeologists (diggers and FLOs alike) whenever they record these sorts of objects. This is my real area of geekiness; believe it or not I’m one of a very small group of European medieval hair comb specialists, so if you have any pieces at home, I’d love to see them!

I’m also working closely with some local community projects, and of course have lots of finds to record. In particular, there are piles of medieval coins that I’ve just started to look at, and which I hope will start to appear as database records fairly soon.

This weekend I’ll be running a Finds Surgery at Wellingborough Museum as part of Heritage Week (Sunday 9th September, 10-3pm).

Oh, and of course at the moment I’m revelling in the bizarre period of success currently being enjoyed by Coventry City FC. And bemoaning England’s failure to put together a decent back row in advance of what is actually quite a big competition coming up this month.

That’s it! Keep checking back.

Steve

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