Monument record BSE 052 - North Transept, St James Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds, (Prehistoric)

1983: Two residual sherds of Iron Age (or Early Saxon?) pottery found in trial trench on site of proposed Cathedral Treasury (S1).
Details of 1988 (see S4) & 1999 (see S5) excavations not yet available - see assessment report S3, which does not discuss the prehistoric material, although at least 135 worked flints were found (in a buried soil only found in the 1999 excavations) which could be divided into three separate groups. These include one of the largest Mesolithic groups in the area (64 flints), a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age assemblage and a later Bronze Age or Iron Age group (summary of flint report from draft final report). All from 1999. No flints from 1998. North Trancept excavations mostly redeposited in Saxon or later features (S6). Worked flint report put in library copy of S3.

1988-1999 excavations revealed a group of small pits and features underneath a buried ancient soil horizon c.25cm deep which contained an assemblage of worked flint, and an intrusive single sherd of medieval pottery. The pits were filled with pale gravel silt similar to the soil horizon. One of the pits cut a linear feature, possibly a ditch, although it was badly truncated. None of the features produced finds, however they are assumed to be prehistoric because of the leached fills (S7).

See also Saxin and Medieval Records

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 1999 (S9).