Excavation of Iron Age Settlement at Ryton

1 Site threatened by gravel extraction and excavated by CADAS from 1965-7. An Iron Age enclosure complex overlay a Bronze Age cremation cemetery and enclosure (PRN 1842). The upper fill of the Bronze Age enclosure ditches contained Iron Age intrusions and debris, and the enclosure ditch could have been recut in places. A number of pits and post holes and an annular trench with central pit were found inside the enclosure and some of these contained Iron Age pottery. Several other Iron Age enclosures abutted onto this enclosure and some of these contained internal features. The final enclosure (D) probably dated to the 1st century AD. Finds included five parts of stone querns, Iron Age pottery, a knife, a split pin, a looped pin, a glass bead, Mesolithic flints (PRN 6040), Neolithic/Bronze Age flints (PRN 5511) and a ?Neolithic axe (PRN 6057).
4 Aerial photograph.
5 More than 30 crude fragments of fired clay of unknown function found in a penannular enclosure ditch on the site. Some of these clay lumps have now been joined together to form two main ceramic groups. It is likely the two groups are from the same vessel.
6 Enclosures and other features mapped as part of the English Heritage National Mapping Project