Life on the Dallington Brook: Archaeological investigations at Harlestone Park, Northamptonshire 2022–2023

Between 2022 and 2023, archaeological investigations were undertaken at Harlestone Park, Northamptonshire, exposing evidence for a landscape shaped by humans over several millennia. Straddling the Dallington Brook near New Duston, the site has shed light on how this riparian landscape has been exploited in varying ways since the Early Neolithic through to the modern day. Initially occupied periodically, perhaps on a seasonal basis, the site eventually became a focus for funerary activity during the Middle Bronze Age, with two groups of cremation burials situated either side of the brook. Subsequently, during the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age, the site was incorporated into an area demarcated by an extensive network of boundaries defined by alignments of pits.