Monument record LCS 218 - Bronze Age/Early Iron Age settlement activity at Land south of Red House Lane, Leiston

2015: A detailed gradiometry survey was conducted over approximately 8.2ha of agricultural land. The survey has identified a former enclosure of unknown date. All of the other anomalies detected are modern in origin, relating to modern agricultural activity, ferrous objects and fencing (S1).

2016: Trial trench evaluation identified evidence for middle-late Bronze Age to earlier Iron Age settlement activity. The features include a single middle Bronze Age urned cremation, several ditches representing field boundaries and two curvilinear ditch terminals which could be possible roundhouses and three pits within a large ditched enclosure. The remains suggest the presence of perhaps two phases of Middle-Late Bronze Age field systems associated with sporadic settlement remains. A total of 13 pieces of struck flint were recovered and burnt flint. The burnt flint was recovered from one of the pits which could be indicative of hearth waste. A small assemblage of prehistoric pottery comprising 36 sherds were recovered dating from Middle Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. Further excavation has been recommended. A Post medieval field boundary ditch was also recorded crossing the middle of the site on a north to south alignment. It is marked on 1882-1884 OS map and is still in existence during the 1938 however by 1958 the ditch is no longer visible on cartographic material (S2).

2018: Excavation revealed part of a Middle Bronze Age settlement in the form of two separate ditched enclosures. The features yielded almost exclusively sherds of Deverel-Rimbury pottery that were radiocarbon dated by associated short-lived species charcoal to the 14th–13th century cal. BC. Residual Early Bronze Age pottery and flintwork also demonstrated earlier occupation in the environs of the site. There was an almost complete lack of datable evidence for Late Bronze Age activity, suggesting the settlement was either abandoned or shifted to a new location by this period.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2018. (S4)