Summary
A Late Iron Age/early Roman open-air ritual site occupying the crest and flanks of a ridge, overlooking the Welland Valley; an Iron Age/early Roman rectilinear settlement; a series of Roman rectilinear enclosures of several phases; a Roman three-sided enclosure; and part of a Roman ditch flanking the east side of the site The remains survive as a series of buried features including ditches, pits, gullies, slots and post holes with associated deposits
Reasons for Designation
This Iron Age and Roman ritual site, settlements, enclosures and linear features is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
Rarity:
* it includes the first and currently the only example of a large open-air Iron Age shrine to be identified in England.
Documentation:
* a combination of several archaeological methods have produced a high level of documentation for this site, which is the first of its type in Europe to be comprehensibly investigated.
Period:
* shrines are one of the very few classes of monuments within the pre-Roman Iron Age that clearly reflect ritual activities, making this example at Hallaton an extremely important example.
Survival:
* despite surviving as buried deposits, geophysical survey and excavation shows that the below ground remains are well preserved and highly legible;
* the quantity and range of artefacts and ecofacts recovered by excavation show that significant material evidence is retained at the site from the Iron Age through to the Roman period.
Potential:
* it has the potential to inform a range of questions about the nature, extent and longevity of Iron Age ritual activity and shrines in England;
* it has the potential to increase our understanding of prehistoric belief systems through the transition to the Roman period and beyond;
* the Roman settlements arranged outside the boundaries of the Iron Age shrine have the potential to add to our knowledge of Roman rural settlements in the region, amid a pre-existing ritual landscape.
History
Prehistoric shrines were places of veneration, typically comprising a small building, sometimes within a larger enclosure. They date mostly to the Late Iron Age (about 400 BC to AD 43), especially the last century or so before the Roman conquest, and are confined mostly to the south and east of England. Evidence from excavated examples suggest that they often contained pits and post-holes within which structured deposition of votive offerings including pottery, coins, and metal objects were made, and in some instances, they may have held standing stones, posts or trees which served as foci for ritual activity. Animal remains are sometimes significant finds and are also indicative of ritual activity, presumably sacrifice and feasting. However, formal demarcated sacred spaces were not the only expression of ritual practice and many locations probably had no temple or ritual structure at all. Later prehistoric shrines and ritual sites rarely survive as visible earthworks or ruins, but their presence may be indicated by aerial photography, geophysical survey, or votive material mapped by fieldwalking or metal-detecting.
Later Iron Age and Romano-British occupation in Britain included a range of rural settlement types. Small-scale farmsteads formed the dwelling places of individual families or kinship groups usually engaged in mixed farming. They typically consist of clusters of roundhouses and rectangular timber structures within ditched enclosures. These sites are often found to contain pits or post-built storage structures.
The site at Hallaton is the first open-air shrine to be identified in England, and the first of its type in Europe to be comprehensibly investigated. The Hallaton Treasure represents the largest number of Iron Age coins ever found in Mainland Britain. While there is some evidence of ritual activity in the form of the deposition of gold coins in the mid first century BC, the hilltop was clearly established as a sacred space or shrine in the Late Iron Age when the Corieltavi were the inhabitants of the East Midlands. Excavation has shown that the shrine was defined on the east side by a boundary ditch with a wide entrance. This ditch was not identified by the geophysical survey, and it is considered to encircle the hilltop in the form of a polygonal enclosure. The main phase of ritual activity at the shrine occurred in the early first-century AD when silver objects, coins and other metal objects were buried in the ditch and the entrance, after which the ditch was infilled and possibly fenced. Sacrifice and feasting took place indicated by large quantities of animal bone, mostly of pigs under a year old, which were deposited in large pits outside the entrance. Around AD 43 at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, some 14 coin hoards were deposited in the entrance (probably in bags), and the bowl of an early first century AD Roman helmet, components of other helmets, and more than 1000 coins were deposited in a pit cut into the edge of the boundary ditch. The objects are thought to be ritual deposits, perhaps people seeking protection during the turbulent period around the Roman conquest. This intensive ritual activity is thought to have ended in the mid-first century AD, although there are suggestions of later offerings including Roman coins and brooches which mostly avoided the original ritual space.
The main ritual site is surrounded by further enclosures and boundary features. These include an extensive three-sided ditched enclosure apparently enclosing the hilltop ritual site; a large Roman period settlement to the north whose occupation overlapped with the main ritual phase of the site; a series of rectilinear enclosures across the southern flank of the hilltop, which spread over time and which appear to avoid the former sacred area; and a long sinuous ditched features whose origin and function is unclear.
INVESTIGATION HISTORY
The site of Hallaton was field walked in 2000 and 2001, when large amounts of Iron Age and Roman pottery was recovered. Also, in 2000 more than 200 Iron age silver coins were recovered by metal detecting. Geophysical survey carried out in 2001, 2002 and between 2007 and 2011 revealed the presence of large number of enclosures, ring ditches, boundary features and pits. The first excavations designed to test and confirm these geophysical features were undertaken in 2001; six coin hoards and associated features, a boundary ditch and entrance in addition to numerous finds including the components of at least one Roman cavalry helmet were uncovered. In 2003 there was further excavation to examine the area around the boundary entrance, and in 2005 three test pits were dug by hand within this larger area to examine the boundary ditch and some pits containing bones. In 2007 a further nine small trenches were excavated to target some of the geophysical anomalies across the wider site, and many of the features were shown to be Roman ditches and pits. Between 2008 to 2009 two further trenches targeted other geophysical anomalies including potential roundhouses and a large pit associated with the large sub-rectangular settlement.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: a Late Iron Age/early Roman open-air ritual site occupying the crest and flanks of a long ridge, overlooking the Welland Valley; an Iron Age/early Roman rectilinear settlement; a series of Roman rectilinear enclosures of several phases; a Roman three-sided enclosure; and part of a Roman ditch flanking the east side of the site. The remains survive as a series of buried features including ditches, pits, gullies, slots and post holes with associated deposits
DESCRIPTION: the presence of the site was first indicated by pottery and coin finds, its layout revealed by geophysical survey and its nature and date confirmed by excavation. The earliest activity was uncovered on the eastern flank of the site and was interpreted as a Late Iron Age curvilinear ditched feature, thought to be associated with the deposition of gold coins. Subsequently the open-air ritual site was established around the ridge top, and is bounded on the east side by a 50m long north-south ditch; the ditch mostly varies from 0.9m to 2m wide and from 0.4 to 0.7m deep, and a narrower section is thought to indicate a secondary palisade or fence slot. An opening through this ditch about 6m wide, formed a 'turnstile' entrance from which the skeleton of a ritually-buried dog was recovered. There are also the remains of a metalled pathway associated with this entrance. Within the northern part of the entrance 14 deliberately placed coin hoards were recovered from the surface ground. The ditch south of the entrance was used extensively for the structured deposition of votive objects including parts of Roman cavalry helmets, a silver bowl, silver and copper alloy ingots and coins. Substantial quantities of deliberately-deposited pig bone was recovered from an area immediately to the east of the linear ditch representing feasting activities outside of the demarcated site. The archaeologically sensitive ridge top ritual space and any associated enclosure ditch is considered to be the location of further ritual activity and deposition.
The ditched remains of contemporary and later settlements and enclosures surround the ritual site, and appear to have avoided the latter, suggesting a continuing awareness of its ritual significance. To the north there is an enclosed settlement visible as a sub-rectangular enclosure measuring about 90m east to west and 120m north to south containing the remains of pits, the ditched remains of circular houses, other ditches and internal divisions; one partially excavated circular house dated by pottery to the mid-first century AD is about 8-9m in diameter, and a possible contemporary second circular house is about 12m across. Further associated features including pits and wells remain, those excavated contained Roman pottery within their fills. There are the remains of a Roman building identified by a spread of Roman material including rubble, tile and iron nails in the south-east corner of the enclosure. In addition several ditches extend east from the enclosure, two of which when partially excavated, contained second century AD Roman pottery. The south boundary ditch of this settlement also forms the north side of a large three-sided ditched enclosure and measures about 200m across; later first to second century AD Roman pottery was recovered in association with this. The enclosure encloses the ridge top and its southern flanks, including the open-air shrine. It also encloses a series of smaller rectilinear ditched enclosures, some conjoined and containing large pits, which are thought to be the progression over time of later Roman period settlements across the southern flank of the ridge. Bounding the ritual site on the east side there is a sinuous ditch about 70m long; excavation showed that this is about 3m wide and over 1m deep, and a slight flanking bank was also identified. The feature is dated to the later Roman period by the recovery of later Roman pottery.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this includes the core of the late Iron Age and Roman remains confirmed by geophysical survey and excavation, and also includes a margin of 10m on all sides for their protection. It is intended to include only a sample of the sinuous Roman ditch flanking the extreme eastern part of the assessment area, including its important relationship with the core of the remains, and the fragmentary remains of a further linear boundary extending to the extreme south of the site. Further remains identified by geophysical survey beyond the scheduled area are considered to be either fragmentary or of uncertain nature and date, and are not being assessed for scheduling at this time.
