Monument record CAC 042 - Land off Ullswater Road, Bloodmoor Hill, Carlton Colville.

Evaluation (1996 - see CAC 014) and excavation (2007) of site with round-houses, 4-posters, pits, ditches etc with classic Late Bronze Age (Matt Brudenell, Oct 2008) pottery assemblage (& a few Neo & EBA sherds). Reports to follow. Assessment report outstanding - see (S1) for draft.
Note: - part of area to E excavated by Cambridge (see CAC 016) located 'IA' pottery and tip of bronze axehead & evaluation (CAC 014) also produced bronze ingot(?) in feature with 'IA' pottery.
Small amount of Rom, Med & PMed finds.

2011: Revised Assessment report and updated project design, The site was located on the northwest slope of Bloodmoor Hill where the underlying natural strata are chalky till over glaciofluvial sand. A Mesolithic worked flint and a few sherds of earlier Neolithic and later Neolithic / earlier Bronze Age pottery (most of which were residual finds in later contexts) suggested transitory use of the site in those periods. The earliest evidence for settled occupation of the site dated to the later Bronze Age and was represented by the remains of two roundhouses, several square or rectangular buildings or structures, pits, postholes and external hearth deposits. The settlement was apparently unenclosed; an undated ditched track or drove-way to the north of the main area of occupation might have defined the limit of the settlement at one time. It is likely that the settlement extended beyond the area of excavation to the west. Artefactual and environmental evidence suggests that this was a purely domestic site; there is no conclusive evidence for industrial activity. Cereal crops were used, but it would appear that these were not processed on site. The large later Bronze Age pottery assemblage is of regional significance. The settlement was abandoned during the later Bronze Age and buried by wind-blown sand. A ditched track that truncated one of the roundhouses is not dated conclusively but might have been the continuation of a Roman track found previously to the east of this site. There is no conclusive evidence for the use of the site in the medieval period, although a possible hollow way might have formed at that time. Some post-medieval ditches can be related to field and parish boundaries shown on 19th-century maps (S2).

2013: Excavation revealed part of a Late Bronze Age settlement dating to the first two centuries of the first millennium BC. The unenclosed settlement, probably little more than a small farmstead supporting one or two families, was represented by the remains of two roundhouses, several smaller square or rectangular four-post structures (possible granaries), some pits, an external hearth and possibly part of an adjacent field system. It was located on welldrained, sandy soil on the north-western flank of Bloodmoor Hill, at approximately 10m OD.
Environmental evidence from both roundhouses suggests that these were dwellings, with charred cereal remains and other foodstuffs representing hearth waste. The domestic nature of the settlement is demonstrated also by a significant Plainware Post Deverel-Rimbury pottery assemblage that consists of vessel forms used typically for food preparation, serving and storage. Domestic activity was represented further by evidence for textile working in both roundhouses, in the form of two probable loomweights and a spindlewhorl. The settlement seems to have been fairly short-lived and there is little evidence to suggest that the site continued in occupation during the Iron Age. In the Romano-British period the site was crossed by one or more trackways leading to a farmstead that is known to have existed approximately 100m to the east (S3).

2007:An area of 8494sqm was excavated carried out in advance of residential development on a site on relatively high ground on the southern slope of Bloodmoor Hill, to the west of the important Anglo-Saxon settlement and cemetery (CAC016). An evaluation in 1996 (CAC014) produced evidence for Neolithic and Iron Age activity. The excavation confirmed that the earliest use of the site was in the Neolithic period – a shallow pit contained part of a polished axe head. Occasional occupation of the site continued into the Bronze Age, as demonstrated by a localised spread of ashy soil and fire-cracked flint containing pottery of that period. Activity increased in the Iron Age with the establishment of a settlement in the southern half of the site, represented by two small roundhouses about 30m apart, on either side of an E-W hollow-way that is likely to be contemporary, as well as several four-poster buildings and scattered pits. The settlement extends beyond the western boundary of the site. There is no evidence to suggest that occupation continued into the Roman period, though a single sherd of Roman pottery came from a SW-NE ditch that cuts one of the roundhouses. Other ditches are of post-medieval date (a field boundary) or are undated (a possible E-W track-way).Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2007 (S4).