Excavations at Marne Barracks, Catterick, North Yorkshire, SE 254 970

Abstract

This report concerns an excavation at Marne Barracks, Catterick, North Yorkshire, undertaken in the summer of 2015. The excavations were part of Operation Nightingale, working with Tri-Service personnel participating in archaeological projects on military bases. Six trenches were examined; two had scant remains and one trench exposed and sampled part of a substantial 20 m-diameter ring ditch. This was part of a Bronze Age burial mound and a radiocarbon date of 3223 ± 29 BP was obtained from material associated with the infilling of the ditch. The main focus of the excavation was around a Romano-British building first discovered in 1939. Excavations in 2015 re-exposed part of this fourth-century AD building and extended the outline of the structure to the south as well as discovering two Anglo-Saxon skeletons. The skeletons, like others from the immediate area, are dated to the sixth century AD.

Keywords:

• Bronze Age
• Roman
• Anglo-Saxon
• barrow
• Roman building
• burials

Acknowledgements

The excavations were possible with the support of Major Del Tickner, QM of 5th Regiment Royal Artillery at Marne Barracks and Sgt Dairmaid Walshe who provided the full support of the Defence Archaeology Group. Phil Abramson, an Archaeology Advisor for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and Dr. Keith Emerick of Historic England formed part of a triumvirate who organised the logistics of establishing the project. Support for the initiative through the Carillion–Morgan Sindall JV came from David Lowery, Project Director of the A1L2B road project. The author benefited from the support of on-site supervision from Jonnie Shipley and Ian Walker, whilst Matt Clements and Becca Snook provided on-site assistance from the JV. Over 50 individuals took part in the excavations from all three services, with additional support from Leicester University students, SWAAG for geophysical surveys and local volunteers. I am grateful to those named above as well as Greg Speed for access to the NAA evaluation report at Catterick and to Duncan Hale at ASDU for access to the Marne excavations archive 2000–2002. Further thanks must go to the specialists who provided finds reports, to Phil Abramson, Helen Maclean and the anonymous referee for commenting on the text, and Wendy Sherlock who edited the manuscript.