Monument record MTN 068 - Iron Age and Roman activity at Woods Lane, Melton

2017: Excavation of a 1.34ha area uncovered a moderately complex multi-phase system of field boundary ditches and gullies, accompanied by contemporary pits, spanning the Middle to Late Iron Age and Late Iron Age to Early Roman periods. These features likely constituted settlement and agricultural land use. Middle to Late Roman land use activity was represented by several large midden spreads, which were rich in pottery and metal artefacts. No additional evidence was uncovered to suggest occupation past the late Roman phase until the post-medieval period, which was represented by a field boundary ditch indicating more recent agricultural activity. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2017 (S1).

2017: Excavation. Prehistoric remains predating the Iron Age were restricted only to a small quantity of artefacts judged to be residual in later features. A small amount of Middle Iron Age remains were found, marking the beginnings of tangible land use activity on the site in the form of a posited east/west routeway and other intermittent gullies. More concerted land use activity in the Late Iron Age and transition consisted of vaguely rectilinear field boundaries, a livestock enclosure that, in a later phase, were replaced by a second, north/south, routeway in the east of the area. Only a very few pits were of demonstrably Late Iron Age date. Possibly enduring post-conquest, the Late Iron Age landscape and its trackway were replaced in the Early Roman period by a rectilinear field system. Seemingly occupied by sub-enclosures/pens, a distinctive small ring-gully and a scatter of pits and postholes were recorded within the defined fields. By the mid to late 2nd century AD, the agricultural functioning of the enclosed landscape appears to end and the presence of a number of large midden deposits located within the remnant landscape suggests its dereliction and use for rubbish disposal (S2).