Printed from the APC web site: navigation and non-essential images removed.
Please view on-line for full content (URL at end of document).
Two small rectilinear enclosures were recorded during the current phase of watching brief at Nosterfield Quarry. These are the first such features identified on the site and stand out in contrast to the pit alignments, ditches and round barrows found previously in the investigation. Although both features remain undated, their size and shape have parallels with Iron Age square barrows found in the Yorkshire Wolds. In this respect their location this far northeast is unusual.
Feature 320
The northern enclosure (F320) comprised a continuous rectangular ditch circuit 1.0m wide, 7.8m from north-south and 6.8m from east-west. No internal features were found. The burial of an adult male was discovered crammed into a narrow north-south aligned grave which had been cut into the western length of the enclosure ditch. The body lay on its back slightly flexed at the hip and knee with its head to the north facing to the east. His arms were drawn up across his chest with both hands clasped under his left cheek. A single horse tooth was recovered from between his thighs. Both legs were lying sticking up at a slight angle and it would appear that the grave cut was only long enough to accommodate the head and body.
Since excavation, the skeleton has been carefully washed and packaged and is currently being analysed by osteologist Malin Holst. A report on this analysis is expected to be available by the end of January, at which point a sample of bone will be sent for radiocarbon dating (report posted 30th January 2004: Holst, 2004. Osteology Assessment ~ Report No 0304).
Sections recorded through the ditch revealed that the feature had a regular, steep-sided U-shaped profile and varied in depth between 0.4m and 0.5m. The ditch appeared to have been recut at some time, resulting in the truncation of the skeleton at the knee and the displacement of its lower legs. This suggests that the feature was actively managed over a period of time due to its lasting significance in the landscape.
Despite the lack of a central burial it is not unreasonable to interpret the enclosure as a square barrow. Excavation of a number of Iron Age cemeteries in eastern Yorkshire (Wetwang Slack, Garton Slack, Danes Graves) have shown that many of the earlier barrows lack a central burial pit, suggesting either that the body was buried on the original ground surface then covered with upcast from the ditch, or was interred in a shallow grave since ploughed out. The incidence of later burials in the barrow ditch is not uncommon. At Wetwang Slack 170 secondary burials were excavated from barrow ditches. Common characteristics of the secondary burial were small, cramped graves, absence of grave goods and crouched or flexed burials orientated north-south with the face to the east. Evidence from Rudston suggests that each barrow may have been associated with a family group and that the barrow may have been reused as a burial plot over generations. The secondary burial and later remodelling of F320 suggests a similar activity took place at Nosterfield.
 |
Square Barrow f 320 |
Interactive Plan: Square Barrow f 320. View
full screen
Right click (PC) or ctrl click (Mac) on the image and choose Help or read
the SVG Instructions
in new window
Feature 304
F304 was located 150m to the south of F320 and 8m to the west of the horse pit (F316). Like F320 it comprised a continuous ditch circuit but was slightly larger measuring 10m square. Like F320 there was no evidence for any internal features. The recorded sections of the enclosure ditch, however, suggest that this feature may not have been a square barrow. The profile of the enclosure ditch was that of a steep V-shaped cut with a marked channel or slot between 0.3m and 0.45m wide running along the base. The recorded sections showed that within the fill system of the feature a steep, near vertical sided u-shaped gully was located centrally within the ditch, filled with a large concentration of gravel and stones. The profile of this gully resembles a backfilled post void or slot which, with the incidence of possible post impressions in the base of the enclosure in its southwest and southeast corners, also suggests that the ditch circuit may have held a series of upright timbers creating a form of palisaded enclosure. No evidence for an entrance into the enclosure was encountered despite careful excavation.
Possible ritual or mortuary enclosures are not unknown, for example, at Kirkburn, East Yorkshire, three rectilinear enclosures with western entrances have been excavated. These stood out in contrast to the rest of the cemetery on the site and were interpreted as being the focus for ritual activity although the exact nature of this activity is not known. Whether these features were the equivalent of shrines or temples or were the site of exposing bodies (excarnation) is speculation.
The reuse of an early ritual landscape seems to have provided a focus for features at Kirkburn. Two horses were buried in pits at the entrance to a Neolithic long enclosure during the Iron Age when the site was adopted for burial. The recent discovery of the chariot burial at Ferrybridge as well as examples elsewhere, for example, at Rudston, North Yorkshire clearly emphasise that Neolithic ritual landscapes retain some significance into Iron Age and beyond. Indeed, the common factor shared among the best known ritual landscapes in Britain is that they are the accumulation of reactions to features and the expression of significance in a landscape or territory.
Nor is the rite of burial within a square barrow confined to East Yorkshire. Groups have been identified in the Trent Valley and Eastern Scotland. Similarly barrows of this type are known to occur in isolation or small groups as well as in large cemeteries. Their location appears to be affected by a number of factors, including proximity to settlement and the significance of place. The significance of the ritual landscape at Nosterfield during the Neolithic and Bronze Age seems to have prompted the reuse of the landscape during the Iron Age for burial. It seems likely that a change in belief system, societal structure and therefore burial rite may have reinterpreted or re-emphasised the existing monuments at Nosterfield, and a renewed political and cultural significance of the place would have exploited the existing features.
In this respect the square barrow and square enclosures can be interpreted in the context of other activity occurring at Nosterfield at this time. The long pit alignments, large continuous ditch boundaries, inhumation of the dead and the ritual killing and burial of horses may all be roughly contemporaneous suggesting the persistence of ritual and political significance of the Nosterfield landscape into the Iron Age.
 |
 |
Enclosure f 304 |
Section through ditch of enclosure f 304 |
Interactive Plan: Enclosure f 304. View
full screen
Right click (PC) or ctrl click (Mac) on the image and choose Help or read
the SVG Instructions
in new window