Excavation of a Late Seventh-Century Structure in Upper Ribblesdale

Abstract

Earthwork remains of a small rectangular, stone-built structure were identified by field walking in Upper Pasture to the west of the hamlet of Selside in Horton in Ribblesdale civil parish. Most archaeological sites in Upper Ribblesdale have hitherto been identified as most probably of Romano-British date but none had been conclusively dated. Excavation of this structure was conceived to test the hypothesis that it was an early medieval shieling associated with transhumant stock rearing rather than a Romano-British building.Remarkably, significant quantities of Early Neolithic chert, some of it worked, were recovered from within the structure but radiocarbon dating of two charcoal samples impressed into the floor within the building produced identical radiocarbon dates of cal ad 660–780, thereby confirming an early medieval provenance for it. No early medieval metal objects or bone were recovered, and the site was aceramic.