Monument record 0710801000 - Quarrendon Fields site AZ5

Large curvilinear ditched enclosure of Late Iron Age to early Roman date identified during investigations by Stratascan and Albion Archaeology from September to December 2009. The enclosure containing a dense cluster of ditches, intercutting gullies, pits, postholes, and probable ditched trackway or droveway, suggesting subdivision into activity areas and is interpreted as a settlement enclosure. Most features had been deliberately back-filled with deposits including animal bone, fired clay and late Iron Age and early Roman pottery and had a relatively high organic content. The main enclosure ditch was 1.4m wide and 0.58m deep with steep sides and flat base. A large pit 4.6m in diameter and over 1.2m deep with a funnel-like profile, is interpreted as a water storage pit. A possible adjoining ditched enclosure to the south with few internal features may have acted as a further NE-SE trackway into the settlement or as an ancillary area used for livestock. A cluster of 4 stakeholes or small postholes in this enclosure contained cremated animal bone and parts of a single human cremation. Complex recorded as AZ5. See reports for detail (B1-2).