Late Iron Age to Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Barton Seagrave, Northamptonshire

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 427

Subscribe now for full access and no adverts

REVIEW BY ANDY CHAPMAN

This monograph does everything that it says on the packaging in the quoted book review. It contains, ‘high quality data with extensive and thorough reporting by artefact/ecofact specialists’. Unfortunately, with one outstanding exception, the archaeology itself is largely uninspiring. There are late Iron Age pit groups and early to middle Roman enclosures and boundary ditches. The exception is the ‘semi-subterranean structure’: a large stone-lined pit and an access ramp. On the floor of the pit there was placed a T-shaped arrangement of rotary querns, two upper and three lower stones. Two stones form a working pair, and all had been used and were still functional. This deposit is unique, and its meaning can be the subject for discussion and debate. Whether, as claimed in the cover review, the site ‘deserves publishing for this one feature alone’, may be true, but at £56 for a paper copy and £44 for a PDF, the sales will inevitably be largely limited to library collections.

Late Iron Age to Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Barton Seagrave, Northamptonshire
Andrew Newton, Antony Mustchin, and Julie Walker
BAR, £56
ISBN 978-1407362496

Just Out and Coming Soon

Domination: the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity
Alice Roberts
Simon and Schuster, £11.99
ISBN 978-1398510104

Historic Landscapes of Cornwall and Devon
Philip Treveil
BAR, £52
ISBN 978-1407360775

Beauty and Cosmetics in the Time of Jane Austen
Sarah Jane Downing
Amberley, £15.99
ISBN 978-1398123137

The Anglo-Saxon Agricultural Revolution in Norfolk
Richard Hoggett and Neil Faulkner (eds.)
Archaeopress, £40 (open access eBook)
ISBN 978-1805830726

Living and Dying in a Lancashire Cotton Town
Julie Franklin, Matthew Ginnever, and Kimberley Gaunt
BAR, £70
ISBN 978-1407356495

Why the Industrial Revolution Happened in Britain
Jeremy Black
Amberley, £11.99
ISBN 978-1398129085

Roman Birmingham 5: Metchley Roman Fort, Birmingham
Alex Jones
BAR, £29
ISBN 978-1407362618