Farmsteads and Funerary Sites: The M1 Junction 12 Improvements and the A5-M1 Link Road, Central Bedfordshire. Archaeological Investigations Prior to Construction, 2011 & 2015-16

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) undertook extensive excavations during the construction of two separate, but adjacent road schemes, some 4.5km apart near Houghton Regis and Toddington, in south Central Bedfordshire. Taken as a whole, the excavations provide a detailed multi-period dataset for regional and national comparison.

The first evidence for occupation occurred in the middle/late Bronze Age comprising pits and clusters of postholes, including four-post and six-post structures. Two pit alignments, more than 2km apart, also indicate that land divisions were being established, and in the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age a significant new settlement emerged in the valley bottom. Parts of a further contemporary earlier-middle Iron Age settlement lay at the top of the valley but neither settlement extended into the Roman period. In the late Iron Age or early Roman period three or four new settlements emerged with occupation continuing into the late Roman period in at least one of these. Of particular interest was the recovery of two significant Aylesford-Swarling type cemeteries as well as a third cemetery which largely comprised unurned burials, including some busta, but with few accompanying grave goods.

In the late 7th-century a small probable Christian conversion open-ground inhumation cemetery was established with burials accompanied by a range of objects, including a rare work box, knives, brooches, chatelaine keys and a spearhead. Parts of three medieval settlements were uncovered including one with a potters' working area.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ;
Location and circumstances of the fieldwork ;
Landscape character, topography and geology ;
Aims and objectives of the fieldwork ;
Research themes and the significance of results ;
Organisation of this report ;
Summary of chronology within this report ;
Textual and graphical conventions ;
Arrangements for the archives ;
Community engagement and public dissemination ;

Chapter 2: MIDDLE–LATE BRONZE AGE PITS AND UNDATED PIT ALIGNMENTS ;
Middle-late Bronze Age pits in the upper valley ;
Middle–late Bronze Age pits in the lower valley ;
Late Bronze Age/early Iron Age pits at Site C ;
The Bronze Age pit alignment, south of Site M ;
Pit alignments and other features at Site P ;
Specialist studies ;
Regional landscape context and discussion ;

Chapter 3: IRON AGE FARMING BESIDE THE OUZEL BROOK ;
Iron Age settlement evidence at Sites D, G and M ;
Middle Iron Age settlement and activity at Sites K and N ;
Late Iron Age settlement, 1st century BC, at Site G, D and M ;
An Iron Age roundhouse at Thorn overbridge, Site G ;
Late Iron Age boundaries, 1st century BC, at Site D ;
Iron Age ditches south of Site M ;
The alluvial sequence beside the Ouzel Brook at Site M ;
Specialist studies ;
Regional landscape context and discussion ;

Chapter 4: A LATE IRON AGE/ROMAN CREMATION CEMETERY AND SETTLEMENT FEATURES AT HARLINGTON ROAD, TODDINGTON ;
The Iron Age/Roman funerary remains and nearby boundaries ;
Cremation cemetery at Site M1A ;
Cremation cemetery at Site M1A ;
The pyre site and possible cairn at Site M1B ;
Roman boundaries at TWB3, Site M1Cand Site M1B ;
Specialist studies ;
Regional landscape context and discussion ;

Chapter 5: IRON AGE/ROMAN FUNERARY SITES IN THE VALLEY OF THE OUZEL BROOK ;
Summary of the funerary chronology ;
A middle-late Iron Age inhumation from Site Q ;
A late Iron Age/early Roman urned cremation burial cemetery at Site F ;
A late Iron Age/early Roman pyre site and unurned cremations at Site H ;
Early Roman cremation burials and inhumations at Site Q ;
A charnel burial pit of the late 4th to 5th centuries AD at Site F ;
Specialist studies ;
Regional landscape context and discussion ;

Chapter 6: LATE IRON AGE/ROMAN TRACKWAYS, BOUNDARIES AND ENCLOSURES ;
Summary of the late Iron Age/Roman chronology ;
Trackways and enclosures at Site H ;
Boundaries and enclosures at Site Q ;
Four-post structures at Site F ;
Boundary ditches at Site P ;
Bou