New light on Iron Age Derbyshire

STEVE MALONE and KRIS POOLE discover new evidence of the Iron Age in eastern Derbyshire

Aerial view of the Tupton site with overlay of identified features (blue=Iron Age; red=Roman). We reported in ACID 2016 the results of excavations at Hanging Banks, Wingerworth. The focus then was on the Roman period remains, but these perhaps overshadowed a key point about the preceding Iron Age occupation and about the Iron Age in northeast Derbyshire generally. Subsequent excavations just a mile to the southeast at Ankerbold Road, Tupton have brought this to the fore. In both cases a clear pattern of enclosures and linear boundaries was evident in geophysical survey and targeted by trial trenching. Evaluations at both sites yielded only Romano-British pottery as dating evidence. It was only the shape of features in the geophysical survey that suggested the possibility of prehistoric phases, although in some cases this could be misleading. Open area excavations of over 3ha at both sites revealed plentiful evidence of Roman period occupation, but still no clear dating evidence for earlier phases. It is only through the use of radiocarbon dating that we can tease out a picture of early-middle Iron Age occupation at Tupton and later Iron Age occupation at Wingerworth. A round house gulley at Tupton was dated to 672 to 429 calBC (65.9 per cent probability; dates calibrated against the tree-ring record), and the large D-shaped enclosure to 366 to 186 calBC (95.4 per cent probability). At Wingerworth a four-post structure (granary) was dated to 110 calBC – 79 calAD (95.4 per cent) and a round house gulley and enclosure ditch to 50 calBC – 120 calAD (95.4 per cent). The early occupation at Wingerworth seems likely to overlap into the early Roman period, but the adoption

Inset Pic: Location map of the sites. (Background terrain model based on Environment Agency lidar, reused under Open Government Licence 3.0) of pottery use at both sites was slow. Small amounts of material begin to be used from the mid-1st century to the end of the Hadrianic era, after which there is a major jump in the Antonine period, with the advent of the Derbyshire Ware fabrics. This tails off rapidly in the early third century, with little evidence of activity after cAD 270. The occupants of both sites seem not to have been producing pottery in the Iron Age and were slow to adopt the use of Roman pottery on any scale until the early-mid 2nd century. The lack of Iron Age pottery in particular may reflect a situation where north-east Derbyshire was probably not producing pottery during this period, although this would not rule out an abundant material culture of rather more perishable materials that has not survived. In this respect the area shows stronger similarities, and perhaps cultural affinities, with South Yorkshire than with areas to the south. Accordingly, it may well be that the Iron Age is under-represented in the archaeological record of this area, particularly compared to other periods. Dating of features at Wingerworth and Tupton was achieved partly by the relationships of features and their shape and layout on the site, but the application of radiocarbon dating has been crucial to confirming Iron Age activity at the site. Identification of Iron Age occupation within the area in future is also likely to require a programme of radiocarbon dating on sites. Excavations at Hanging Banks, Wingerworth were undertaken in association with University of Leicester Archaeological Services for Bellway Homes; those at Tupton for Locus Consulting on behalf of Woodhead Group Ltd.

The four-post structure (possible granary). Charred wheat grain was recovered from the post-holes