Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1422 - 2nd-3rd century Ditches and Gullies

Fourteen ditches and ditch re-cuts were included in Period II.b. based on a combination of artefactual and stratigraphic evidence. All of the ditches maintain and expand upon the later orientation of the Period II.a. ditch complex, although the east-north-east to west-south-west components towards the southern end of the site have completely disappeared leaving only a series of re-cuts on a north-north-west to south-south-east alignment. These are complimented by additional ditches which, if contemporary, appear to divide the site into a series of tracks or droveways running,between enclosed areas or fields, a pattern which is continued by post-holed enclosure 0861.
The ditches themselves varied considerably in both their character and dimensions. Those to the north-west (0687, 0930 & 0973) were only 0.3-0.5 metres in width with depths varying between 0.1 and 0.3 metres, while those to the south-east, including 3345 were up to 1 metre in width with depths reaching 0.5 metres. Generally the fills comprised relatively homogenous brown silty sand and gravel. However, the butt-end of one short section of ditch (2882) had been used to dump a primary deposit of metalworking waste, (S1).