Monument record HNY 034 - Roman kilns and ovens at Land at Hinderclay

2013-2014: Fourteen test pits were excavated at Hinderclay to investigate features identified through aerial photography and geophysical survey. Thearliest activity dates the the earlier Neolithic and is represented by an assemblage of struck flints. The vast majority of finds and features date from the Roman period. The most significant features recorded were two Roman pottery kilns. Also revealed were two ovens, ditches, pits, and post-holes. A number of Roman coins were also retrieved through a metal detecting survey. This illustrates the presence of diffuse Roman actviity over a number of centuries, a pattern of activity which fits in with the known evidence from the wider area. One ditch was likely of Saxon date. (S1)

Following on from the work on site HNY 033 in 2010, the cropmarks in the adjacent field (HNY 034) were investigated, firstly by a magnetometry survey by Tim Dennis in the summer and then by fieldwalking in October. The field was initially sampled using a grid of 50m transects, 20m apart. This identified an activity ‘hot spot’ which was then surveyed using a grid of 10x8 squares, each square measuring 10x10m. This more intensive survey produced approximately 100 worked flints, 800 pottery sherds, plus four metal-detected coins. Early analysis suggests that the flint is Neolithic and the pottery is late Roman (mainly 4th century), with a small quantity of Iron Age material. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2011 (S2).