Monument record BLG 017 - Roman features, Blackacre Hill

1999: Evaluation identified a concentrated area of Roman features towards the noth-east corner of the site, which included ditches/gullies, possible structural remains and burials. A layer of brown silt containing Roman pottery was seen. Several areas of burnt clay, or possible hearths, were observed bounded by another shallow ditch feature, which in turn cuts a clay layer, which also seemed to be part of a large, possibly timber built structural feature in this area. Further west was a pit feature with charcoal-rich material was seen and tentatively assigned a Roman Date. A series of shallow ditches running NW-SE were seen, one of the ditches was cut by a shallow rectangular feature which seemed to represent a burial, as it contained a probable late 3rd/4th century burial finds group; two semi-complete Roman pots, one with decoration, and one copper-alloy ring with three jet jewellery rings, although the burial itself was not encountered, and has perhaps been ploughed out (S2).
A scatter of prehistoric features were identified further south in the centre of the site - see BLG 017 MSF18640

1999: Subsequent Excavation further revealed Roman features dating from 1st and second centuries AD. The archaeology was mostly concentrated in the eastern part of the excavation where there was a greater depth of subsoil and thus better preservation, and included a complex of four ovens. These were closely clustered, three of them located at different levels within an area of imported clay layers filling one large pit or series of pits. Other features lay to the north of this, including a a ditch which contained a burial. The skeleton was in a poor state of preservation but was east-west aligned and appeared to be crouches, with its skill resting on a large stone. Although the ceramics from the grave fill were from the late 1st-2nd century, it may be that these are residual since the inhumation is most likely to date from the 3rd-4th century. This burial was found around 2m to the south of the location of urns and jet rings discovered during the evaluation (S3).
See BLG 017 MSF18640 for monitoring carried out in the area of prehistoric features previously identified by evaluation.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 1999 (S4).