Monument record KSS 080 - Land at Kessingland Primary School, Field Lane, Kessingland (BA)

The evaluation identified two ditches, one provisionally dated Bronze Age another containing both prehistoric and Roman pottery. Prehistoric occupation is thought likely to be in the vicinity as a result of this work (S1).

Part of a Middle Bronze Age ditched enclosure or field system was identified in the northern part of the site and traced into the grounds of the neighbouring school. The associated finds assemblage includes a small but important group of domestic pottery together with worked flints and three cylindrical loomweights, all indicative of occupation in the immediate area. Carbonised residues on the interiors of two pot sherds have provided calibrated radiocarbon dates of between 1420 and 1260 BC. A small pit or posthole inside the postulated enclosure and three similar features located outside the enclosed area also contained Middle Bronze Age pottery and represent the only evidence for activity contemporary with the enclosure / field system. Two of the pits/postholes contained moderate to high densities of emmer or spelt wheat grains (S2).

An excavation revealed ditches defining the south and east sides of a rectangular enclosure measuring at least 49m x 26m. The ditches were up to 2.15m wide and 1m deep, with profiles varying from U-shaped to almost V-shaped. The ditch on the south side of the enclosure was interrupted by two narrow causeways. One of these, in the S.E. corner of the enclosure, was blocked when one of the flanking ditches was re-cut and extended.
The charcoal-rich fills of the ditch defining the east side of the enclosure contained moderate amounts of unabraded pottery, provisionally dated to the late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, together with some ceramic loom-weight fragments and a few worked flints. The artefactual evidence suggests occupation on or close to the site, but the only evidence for activity within the enclosure was a single posthole containing prehistoric pottery. A scatter of three postholes containing abraded sherds of prehistoric pottery provides the only evidence for activity outside the enclosure.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2008 (S3).