Monument record FLN 090 - OUTLINE RECORD: FLIXTON QUARRY (PHASE17/18) - MON

A further 1.5ha was stripped of topsoil and, with the exception of ditches and post-holes marking boundaries and the previous route of the Flixton to Homersfield road (all known from estate and early Ordnance Survey maps) and a post-medieval quarry pit, the remaining datable features were prehistoric.
A discrete group of pits excavated towards the S end of the FLN 091 area included a significant quantity of earlier Bronze Age domestic Beaker pottery and worked flint. Further structural evidence for circular post-built buildings and four-post structures of the later Bronze Age was recorded in the FLN 090 area and a circular post-built building associated with pits of Iron Age date was uncovered in the FLN 091 area. In addition, a number of ditches were identified that clearly predated the post-medieval field boundaries, but did not themselves include dating evidence. These have tentatively been interpreted as part of an earlier, Iron Age or Roman field system. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2012 (S1).


A further 0.7ha was stripped of its topsoil, and with the exception of ditches and post-holes marking boundaries and the previous route of the Flixton to Homersfield road (all known from estate and early Ordnance Survey maps) and a number of post-medieval quarry pits, the remaining datable features were prehistoric. Two ring-ditches, probably of Early Bronze Age date, were recorded, although there were no associated burials or definitive dating evidence. The first, previously recorded from aerial photographs as FLN 012, comprised a single continuous feature describing a circle 18m in diameter. The second ring-ditch, located immediately to the SW of FLN 012, was 20m in diameter and had a double ditch. The excavated sections suggested that an initial ditch had been re-cut at a later date, rather than the two features being open at the same time.
Other features of note clearly represented the continuation of the later Bronze Age/earlier Iron Age occupation deposits recorded in the adjacent quarry areas to the N. In addition to pits, the features included four-post structures, probably granaries, and a part of a circular building, 7.5m in diameter with a six-posted porch on its south-eastern side. Associated artefactual evidence included pottery, worked flint, a fired clay spindle whorl and fragments of triangular loomweights.
A NE to SW orientated ditch that was cut by NW to SE aligned ditches of post-medieval date, appeared to line up with a ditch recorded in the FLN 069 quarry area to the SW which has tentatively been interpreted as part of a late Iron Age/Early Roman field system. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2011 (S2).