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

During September and October 2015 Oxford Archaeology East undertook an excavation at a proposed solar farm at land off Station Road, Elton-on-the-Hill, Nottinghamshire. The two separate excavation areas uncovered Early Iron Age enclosures.
The most complete enclosure plan was uncovered in Area 1 where excavation revealed a sub-circular ditched feature with a c.23m internal diameter. The earliest phase of the enclosure consisted of several long curvilinear ditches, with three entrance ways between, linked to a north-south aligned routeway or entranceway which was c.8m wide. The enclosure was subsequently modified with ditches re-cut and a single entrance defined on its northern side. The second enclosure was revealed in Area 2, 0.5km to the north-east of Area 1. This comprised a small sub-rectangular enclosure with an internal diameter of just 9m and a south-east facing entrance. Further ditches abutted the enclosure at both north and south.
Combined, the sites yielded a fairly substantial assemblage of Early Iron Age pottery, animal bone and fired clay, with personal items comprising a ring-headed swan-neck pin and an antler hammer head from Area 1. In general, the material assemblages were very similar from both sites, and were largely recovered from the enclosure ditches. The composition and condition of artefacts was fairly typical of that from domestic settlements in the Early Iron Age, with the faunal record suggesting an agrarian economy largely based on the husbandry of cattle and sheep. Fragments of two human bones were also recovered from separate parts of the enclosure ditch in Area 2.