Site 4 : 'Empingham West' Iron age and Anglo-Saxon settlement

During the Autumn of 1971, the activity of mechanical scrapers on the north side of the valley at SK 9372 0795, immediately south of Sykes Lane (76m contour) exposed a complex of archaeological features, appearing as cuts into the underlying ironstone, which were excavated periodically until Autumn 1972 under the direction of M.S. Gorin. The site (code EPW 1971/72) was located on slightly sloping ground, of about 5% dip to the south, and both ploughing and the machine damage may have caused considerable truncation of some features. The excavated features fall into two clearly defined areas:, both spatially and chronologically (fig.21), which can be summarised as follows: Phase 1 Iron Age occupation consisted of three house structures indicated by penannular eaves-drip gullies, and a number of associated pits and post holes. Two subphases were identified, 1 a and 1 b. Phase2 Early Anglo-Saxon occupation comprised two sunkenfeatured buildings and associated pits and ditches, lying (with the exception of Pit C) upslope and to the west of the Phase 1 settlement. [Introduction