Monument record BAA 061 - Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age features and possible Roman ditch on Land West Of Richer Road Badwell Ash

Twelve of the trenches were identified to contain archaeological features mostly comprising pits, but also ditches, a gully, possible postholes and a tree hole. These were generally distributed quite sparsely, but with a slight concentration in the north-east of the site. Most of the recorded features are of later prehistoric date, probably Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age. A single tentatively dated Roman ditch was also encountered. Across the west and central trenches topsoil, and in places a thin subsoil, overlaid the natural geology. The east end of the site featured a more complex deposit sequence, with colluvial layers present where the ground level dropped towards Richer Road. Archaeological remains were generally found below these overburden deposits (S1).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2022 (S2).

A 0.15ha excavation was undertaken prior to residential development. A Lower to Middle Palaeolithic probable handaxe or biface tool was recovered from the stripped surface of the site’s Anglian stage glacial till. The earliest in-situ evidence for human activity was a small pit containing an assemblage of Mesolithic to Early Neolithic struck flint. The pit was sealed by a buried soil layer that had accumulated in a large, natural hollow, apparently during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. This buried soil was subsequently cut by a large, deep pit, possibly a waterhole, and by a smaller extraction pit. No further activity was evident until the later Iron Age, when a large, shallow pit was excavated in the N part of the excavation area. This feature was subsequently backfilled with burnt material, including a sherd of Late Iron Age pottery; a four-post structure to the SE of this feature is probably contemporary. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2023 (S3).