Site Event/Activity record ESF26090 - Excavation - Park and Ride Site, Martlesham

An excavation was undertaken on the proposed site of a Park and Ride, following earlier trial trench evaluation . Open area excavation with a 14,000 sqm area of former heathland identified three phases of early human activity. The site was stripped in two stages with a c0.2m thick layer of topsoil being stripped across the entire site prior to the removal of mid brown sand subsol that was masking the archaeological features.Twelve areas around mature trees that are to be retained were left unstripped c7-15m islands. The archaeological features were cut into the undisturbed natural subsoil which comprised smooth, clean, yellow sand and occurred at depths c.0.3m-0.6m. It lay beneath an overburden that comprised a thin topsoil and a subsoil fo mid brown sand which varied in thickness from 0.1m to 0.5m (S1).