Monument record BSM 061 - Land south of Friends Field, Bures St. Mary

2012: Trenched evalauation revealed a series of undated ditches sealed beneth a layer of hillwash, they appear to form rectilinear plots or fields. Also identified was a single pit containing one sherd of Early to Middle Iron Age pottery, which partially cut the hillwash layer. Finally, a large backfilled clay pit was identified, based on the debris noted in the backfill it was not completely filled until the later 20th century. An unstartified sherd of Roman greyware was also recovered, as well as a single Neolithic to Early Bronze Age flint (S1).

2012: Excavation recorded a further five pits, forming a linear group that appear to be associated. Three of these pits contained small fragments of medieval pottery, and a siginificant amount of medieval pottery was recovered from a subsoil layer, interpreted as a hillwash. Two medieval silver hammered coins, a fob seal and undated copper alloy metalworking debris were also recovered from the subsoil layer. The excavation also targeted the junctions of the undated ditches which confirmed that the majority were probably related. A small amount of medieval pottery was recovered from the fills and they appeared to be partially sealed by the hillwash layer, indicating a probable medieval date. A ditch is coincidential to the exisiting edge of the development, indicating that the medieval pattern of plot boundaries is partly preserved in the modern layout of the village. Three sherds of Roman pottery were also recovered from the ditch fills (S2).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2012 (S3).