Monument record CDD 070 - Iron Age occupation including round houses, post bult structures, pits and clay extraction pits at Shrubland quarry, eastern extension

2004: Desktop survey identified the archaeological potential within the 5 hectares area of the proposed quarry extension with a high potential for Prehistoric, Iron Age, Roman and Early Anglo Saxon occupation (S1).

2010: Observation of the topsoil stripping of 2.8ha revealed a large number of archaeological features relating to five archaeological periods:
1). Neolithic: a small cluster of pits on the N edge of the excavated area
2). Bronze Age: a single urned cremation (truncated) towards the SW corner of the excavated area
3). Iron Age: a rectilinear ditched field system, one/two circular structures, a series of four-post structures and a large number of pits (some large). In addition, a large multi-lobed pit that was interpreted as a quarry
4). Roman: a series of intercutting ditches towards the NE edge of the excavation area
5). Post-medieval: occasional pits, a trackway and animal burials.
By far the most significant of the phases of activity dated to the Iron Age. A series of NE-SW and NW-SE aligned ditches appeared to be part of a rectilinear field system and droveway. The other Iron Age features were concentrated in a band running through the centre of the site: pits were concentrated to the W, with the majority of the structural evidence to the SE. A large irregular feature measuring 20m x 12m was interpreted as a quarry pit. Pottery, and fired clay triangular loom-weights and animal bones were recovered.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2010 (S2). Full report to follow.

Archaeology was encountered in all four areas and several different periods were recorded. In particular, the Middle Iron Age settlement was very extensive and represents one of the largest excavated pottery assemblages of this period in Suffolk. Across the larger, southern part of the site (Areas 1, 2 and 4), small concentrations of Middle Bronze Age and Early Iron Age features were recorded. The transition from the Early to the Middle Iron Age (after c.500BC) saw the first extensive use of the site with multiple pits, the digging of two extremely large clay extraction quarries, a pair of postring buildings and a number of four-post structures, possibly granaries. During the next phase, belonging to the Middle Iron Age, a curving, parallel-ditched droveway cut across the site area, truncating the earlier post-ring roundhouses but avoiding the large quarry pits. The animal bone assemblage was dominated by cattle with some large ponies also present. It is likely that the droveway was used to take livestock to water at the River Gipping to the south.The droveway phase was replaced later in the developed Middle Iron Age by a system of field boundary ditches associated with another large clay-extraction pit group. Also seen within this phase were two substantial ring-groove roundhouses and a possible earlier polygonal structure that appeared to be transitional, combining elements of post and stake settings with short straight sections of beam slot. Some of the pottery from selected larger features shows evidence of transition from the Middle to the Late Iron Age and could date from the early First Century BC. By the early Roman period thesettlement had disappeared and been replaced by a rectilinear arrangement of field boundaries (S3).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2013 (S4)