Site record MDR22986 - Pit Alignment, North of Thurston Fields Farm, Elvaston

Over the course of an evaluation carried out in 2017, Phase 4 of a larger programme of archaeological works within the same large residential development, an Iron Age pit alignment was exposed in a number evaluation trenches and more open excavation areas. 'The pit alignment was traced for a distance of over 160m across the eastern half of the site, and may well have continued beyond the site boundary to the east. It consisted of pits generally spaced 1-1.4mm apart edge to edge, although some were as little as 0.4m apart… not straight but sinuous, being east northeast - west southwest in Trench 15, but turning more north-eastwards in Area 10, and south-westwards in Area 17. …The areas excavated to look for a western continuation of the alignment, Areas 17 and 11, were placed on the basis of the alignment established in Area 15, were therefore not in the right place, and unsurprisingly failed to locate any further pits.' (1) The excavators note that finds were relatively sparse, with only small quantities of Iron Age pottery recovered from a small number of pit fills. '…The excavated sample of pits in the alignment did not therefore suggest that the pit alignment was adjacent to an area of contemporary settlement, nor were the pits intended as repositories for deliberate deposition of cultural material, perhaps unlike the pit containing much of a middle Iron Age vessel in the alignment found in Phase 1 of the development to the north. The absence of other cultural material from the evaluation appears to support the view that there was no concentration of occupation in adjacent areas to the north or south.' (1)