Monument record BUN 109 - Iron Age ditches and field boundary ditches and medieval ditch at Land West of St Johns Road, Bungay

A c. 9ha site was subject to trial trench evaluation. The site is located on an east-facing hillside overlooking a steep-sided stream valley; the stream flows into the River Waveney just under a mile to the north. The evaluation identified two main areas of archaeological potential. On the high ground in the north-west of the site was an Iron Age (probably c. 350-50 BC) boundary ditch containing a dump of settlement waste including a large (for the period) assemblage of ironworking slag. Other features in this area, including a posthole, add to the picture of settlement activity. On the sloping ground in the southern half of the site was a broadly rectilinear system of field boundary ditches containing flint-tempered Iron Age pottery and later prehistoric (later-2nd- to 1st-millennium BC) struck flint. One 'kinked' field boundary/ drainage ditch in the south-west of the site was medieval in origin. A single natural geological feature, located on a sandy knoll in the centre of the southern part of the site, contained a small but homogenous assemblage of Mesolithic struck flint, probably representing some of the debris from an episode of flint-knapping, which became accidentally incorporated into the feature (S1).

The evaluation identified two main areas of archaeological potential. On the high ground in the north-west of the site (Trenches 1-4) was an Iron Age (probably c. 350 - 50 BC) boundary ditch containing a dump of settlement waste including a large (for the period) assemblage of ironworking slag. Other features in this area, including a posthole at the end of Trench 3, add to the picture of settlement activity. In the southern half of the site (Trenches 13-18) was a broadly rectilinear system of field boundary ditches containing flint-tempered Iron Age pottery and later prehistoric (later-2nd- to 1st-millennium BC) struck flint. No archaeologically-significant deposits were identified in the central (Trenches 7-11) and north-eastern (Trenches 5-6) parts of the site. Other anomalies identified by a preceding geophysical survey were found to be either natural in origin or post-medieval field boundaries. One 'kinked' field boundary/ drainage ditch in the south-west of the site is medieval in origin. A single natural geological feature, located on a sandy knoll in the centre of the southern part of the site, contained a small but homogenous assemblage of Mesolithic struck flint, probably representing some of the debris from an episode of flint-knapping, which cvbecame accidentally incorporated into the feature (S2).