Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1061 - Building 4165

This sunken featured building, orientated north-south, was parallel to and 22m west of road 1825. It was 5.2m long by 3.3m wide and 1.1m deep. Entrances down to the pit floor were recorded at both the north and south ends. From the sections, it was apparent that the southern entrance had been filled at the same time as the sunken feature, following the demolition of the building and that the north entrance was the earliest. It had been blocked, during the life of the building, by the insertion of an additional wall post (4582) in the north wall. This is further substantiated by the cutting of the west wall of this entrance through the construction filling (4166) behind the wall planking along the south side of the cellar.
The walls comprised regularly spaced individual post holes other than along the south wall where some remnant traces of a slot were recorded. Post ghosts were seen within post holes along the north, west and east cellar walls, but not along the south wall.
Evidence for a clay floor (4585) directly above the base level of the cellar was fragmentary over much of the structure but increased in thickness towards the north. Post impressions, seen along the north, east and west sides of the cellar, protruded through this surface, but the post packings were sealed below.
Along the south wall, there was no evidence for the position of any of the posts within their post holes, and both post holes and slots appeared to be predominantly covered by a thin spread of clay flooring. It seems likely that the south wall had been modified when the new entrance was inserted and presumably a new wall had been built, or the remnant of the original had been underpinned, with a ground beam at floor level.
There was a scatter of post and stake holes of unknown function over the pit floor. While the larger post holes (4651, 4574, 4575) cut the clay floor, the stake holes appeared to be predominantly below. Post holes 4574 and 4575 were centrally positioned and could have provided support for a floor level above.
Both the construction fills and the backfill of the pit were associated solely with MLS pottery assemblages. As the sunken feature cut MLS pits 3351, 4550 and 4906, the life of the building must have been restricted to MLS phase 2. The in-filled cellar was cut by early medieval pit 4306, (S1).