Monument record SUP 047 - Middle Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval features at Land West of Thorney Green Road

2020: Excavation followed two trial trench evaluations and a geophysical survey of the site. Three excavation areas were opened and the results confirmed the earlier phases of work. In Area 1, settlement activity comprising large ditch enclosures, pits and lines of post-holes, forming fence lines, were identified, along with assemblages of pottery and animal bone indicating roadside settlement in the 12th–14th centuries. Area 2 identified several ditched enclosures, pits and post-holes along with multiple smaller gullies that may relate to individual building plots, although again no obvious structures were evident. Finds included animal bone, a sickle and a large assemblage of pottery that included some large sherds of Ipswich Thetford-type ware. The majority of the features dated to the 11th–13th centuries, although there was a small focus of late medieval activity to the NE close to the boundary with Poole’s Farm. A large Early Roman enclosure ditch was identified in the NW corner, the majority of which extended beyond the N limit of excavation. Area 3 revealed a large ditch dating to the Middle Iron Age that extended the full width of the excavation area, E-W. To the N of this, two partially superimposed penannular gullies representing the remains of two roundhouses were recorded along with a number of pits, also likely to be Middle Iron Age in date (S2).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2020 (S1).