Monument record SNT 050 - Upthorpe Road, Stanton, Suffolk (Un)

Excavation identified a possible disarticulated burial, or perhaps two individuals, were encountered during the investigation of a substantial possibly prehistoric ditch. A third crouched individual was buried within a grave. Other remains included a number of late medieval or early post-medieval ditches, subdividing the modern field. A series of roughly parallel irregular linear features seen in the northern half of the site may be of geological origin (S1).

2013-2014 - Following the results of the 2011 evaluation, subsequent excavation was undertaken of an area at the south of the site, frontinh Upthorpe Road.

The earliest activity on the site dates to the Neolithic period and is represented by finds of residual flint, the majority of which occurred in the silting fills of a Bronze Age barrow ditch.

Bronze Age activity was represented by a single Round Barrow. The ring ditch enclosed an area of c.404.4 square meters with a maximum internal diameter of 21.1m and a maximum external diameter of 32.4m. The ditch ranged in depth from 0.7m-1.3m. No central burial pit, secondary graves, or post holes were present within the ring ditch. Later fills of Iron Age and Roman date were present in the ring ditch.

The most significant activity within the site was an early Medieval cemetery which initially appears to have been focussed on the extant Bronze Age round barrow ditch. Burials occupied an area 34m x 76m and were broadly arranged northwest to southeast. It is deemed likely that the full extent of the cemetery has been excavated within the development area. The cemetery contained a total of 65 graves which produced the remains of 67 individuals. A further possible 4 graves contained no huma remains. Two broad phases of burial occurred on the site between the 5th and 8th centuries. The skeletal remains were generally poor to moderately preserved. The earliest phase of burial dated to the late 5th and 6th centuries and comprised chiefly or richly furnished burials focussed around the round barrow ditch. The second phase of burials represents a progression to the east and southeast of the barrow and is a more organised linear arrangement. These burials are dated more from the late 6th to late 7th century. Finds included weapons, brooches and jewellery, and mineral preserved organics including textiles. (S2)

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2014 (S3)