Monument record KIR 066 - Early Neolithic pit, Bronze Age pits and field system, Medieval to Post Medeival ditches and Post Medieval quarry at East Anglia One Site 39

2017: The site was spanned by an extensive sequence of field systems, predominantly Bronze Age, but potentially also including two Anglo-Saxon droveways and their medieval successors. Associated evidence for Bronze Age occupation includes two small burnt features, likely fire pits, and a sparse scatter of prehistoric pits; one of which has produced early Neolithic Mildenhall ware pottery. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2017 (S1). Full report to follow.

2017:The excavation encountered an assemblage of early Neolithic pottery and struck flint in a group of intercutting ‘pits’ ,possibly a tree hollow, in the centre of the site. Adjacent to this was a pit containing late Bronze Age/early Iron Age material. The co-occurrence of pit-like features purportedly of significantly different prehistoric dates (early Neolithic, early Bronze Age, and late Bronze Age/early Iron Age) is a phenomenon recorded at several other EA1 sites (e.g. 30, 36). Small quantities of possibly early Bronze Age pottery were found in to two widely separated pit/ditch terminus features at the north and south of the excavation. The northern feature was adjacent to two, artefact-free, pits similar in size and the character of their fills, which have also been assigned to the early Bronze Age. The majority of prehistoric features at Site 39 date to the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age, and comprise an extensive system of field boundary and parallel ditches distributed across the northern two thirds of the site. The projected alignment of the most northerly late Bronze Age/early Iron Age ditch at Site 39 is oriented on a ring ditch cropmark (KIR052) c.220m to the northwest; this ring ditch appears also to be spatially associated with a south-west to north-east oriented late Bronze Age/early Iron Age trackway recorded in Site 40, c.200m to the north. Two cluster of pits in the central area of Site 39 contained sizable quantities of late Bronze Age/early Iron Age pottery and represent significant settlement activity in this area of the site, though no recognisable structures or other settlement features were found in the excavation. The chronological relationship between this late Bronze Age/early Iron Age settlement activity and field system (possibly including a number of sub-phases) is unknown at the present time.

From the excavation results, there is no archaeological evidence for activity at Site 39 after the early/middle Iron Age until the medieval period, when linear ditches containing 12th-14th century AD pottery remain in-use through the post-medieval period and into the modern era. A grouping of north to south oriented gullies and one south-west to north-east oriented ditch towards the north end of the site may represent an early medieval precursor to the later, formal, medieval/post-medieval arrangement of field boundaries. Two undated ‘burnt pits’ in the same area as the undated possible early medieval ditches, are also tentatively assigned to the medieval period based on securely dated analogous features at numerous sites in the region. Finally, a large area in the centre of the site has been identified from the first edition 1881 Ordnance Survey map and satellite imagery as back fill in a post-medieval coprolite quarry (S2).