Monument record KDG 046 - OUTLINE RECORD: Roman enclosure system at STOURMEAD CLOSE - EVAL (PCA)

2013: A trial trench evaluation was carried out in advance of the demolition of a former NHS facility and the construction of new houses. Sixteen trenches were machine excavated, revealing three mid-1st- to early-2nd-century AD Roman ditches containing pottery, animal bone and lenses of charcoal. These features were located in the north-east corner of the site and represent a continuation of the late Iron Age and Roman activity identified at the Risbridge Hospital site immediately to the east. The ditches appeared to form two sides of a rectilinear enclosure and, based on the associated finds, were close to areas of contemporary occupation. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2013 (S2)

2014: Excavation in advance of housing development (Fig B) revealed three early Roman (mid- to late-1st-century to mid-2nd-century AD) boundary ditches forming part of an enclosure system. The exposed parts of the enclosures’ interiors were empty, suggesting an agricultural function, but the generally good condition of the pottery and the presence of a dump of hearth or oven waste in the easternmost slot through Ditch 3 indicate proximity to domestic areas. Therefore, this was part of the agricultural ‘infield’ on the edge of a settlement. Crop remains were scarce but include small quantities of barley and wheat, the latter mainly spelt and including glume bases; weed seeds and snail shells suggest an open grassland environment. The animal bone assemblage from the ditches is small and fragmented (totalling just 52 bones after refitting) but includes all the main domesticates and indicates a possible bias towards cattle and sheep/ goat secondary products. The mixture of cattle parts reflects all stages of the butchering process, as would be expected on a small farm. The pottery (132 sherds weighing 888g and consisting of five jars, three beakers, and a flagon) is mainly, if not all, locally-produced and is predominantly in coarse sandy fabrics, although there are some examples of locally-made fineware. The site poses interesting questions when viewed against the other Late Iron Age and Roman evidence from the village. A previous excavation east of the site (KDG 019) identified several phases of Late Iron Age/ early Roman ditches and recovered finds reflecting a wealthy native rural settlement with access to imported luxury goods. An intact Dressel 2-4 Italian wine amphora, an object most commonly found in pre-Conquest grave groups such as that at Stanway, Colchester, was found just west of the site during construction of a police station in 1947 (KDG 004). Although the first of the ditches at Stourmead Close could have been laid out at a time when the settlement at KDG 019 was occupied, the enclosure system certainly continued to be elaborated into the 2nd century AD, after the identified part of that settlement area had come to an end. In addition, while the small pottery and animal bone assemblages from Stourmead Close are in keeping with a farmstead of modest status, the finds and environmental evidence from KDG 019 reflect a wealthy ‘consumer’ site occupied by members of the Late Iron Age local elite. The boundary alignments at KDG 046 are also offset from the axes of all but one of the ditches at KDG 019. Despite their physical proximity, the two sites appear to show shifts insettlement location and layout and a change in the character of occupation, in the later 1st century AD. A further possible indication of discontinuity in the local settlement pattern comes from a probable villa site 1.3km to the south (KDG 007): finds suggest occupation from the 2nd to the late 4th century, starting around the time of the decline of the settlement at KDG 019. Whether these changes in settlement location and character were the result of wider social and economic disruption, for example, the arrival of new Roman landowners displacing the local native elite, is unclear on the basis of the current small-scale investigations but will be an important question to bear in mind during future fieldwork in the parish.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2014 (S1).

Full report to follow.