Two Early Iron Age Settlement Enclosures at Elton Solar Farm, Elton-on-the-Hill, Nottinghamshire

Between the 1st of June and the 10th of June 2015 OA East conducted an evaluation on 33ha of land off Station Road, Elton-on-the-Hill, Nottinghamshire (centred on SK 770 395) in advance of a proposed new Solar Farm. This work followed a geophysical survey (Richardson 2014) and a desk-based assessment (Adam and Bashford 2014). Thirty seven evaluation trenches were excavated across the site with three targeted over two sub-circular positive anomalies c.500m apart located by the geophysical survey.
These anomalies were found to be two separate Early Iron Age (EIA) settlement sites. In Trench 8, at the north of the site, was a single isolated house with a 13m diameter drip gully together with an internal post hole. Two iron objects (possibly small parts of harness fittings) were recovered from the drip gully along with 33 EIA pottery sherds (188g), cattle and sheep bone. In Trenches 32 & 33, in the southwest of the site, was a ditched sub-rounded/oval enclosure c.35m (north to south) by c.20m (east to west). The enclosure ditch was variable comprising a single ditch on the north-western side of the enclosure, a ditch and a single recut on the north and a ditch with two recuts on the south-eastern side. No internal features were recorded within the enclosure. Artefacts recovered consisted of 22 EIA pottery sherds weighing 119g along with a small assemblage of animal bone, mostly from the eastern section through the enclosure. An animal bone from each of the sites has been sent for radiocarbon dating and any results will be added to this report as an addendum.
No other pre-medieval (furrows) features were found and the site has continued in use for agriculture until the present day.