Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1065 - Building 2022 (Phase 2)

Building 2022, phase 1, was completely rebuilt in this phase. It was enlarged, on all four sides, creating a building 6.7m long by 4.7m wide, with an entrance in the east wall.
A layer of light brown sand (2665), 45cm deep, was laid over the floor and foundations of the phase 1 building, and a new clay floor (2253) surface laid above. New wall foundation trenches, 80cm wide and 20cm deep were dug around the edges of the enlarged sunken feature. Few of the post impressions, within these trenches, survived to be excavated, but a line of four (3648, 2610, 2611, 2612) surviving along the western edge of the cellar, showed them to be more widely spaced (c.40cm apart) than those in the phase 1 building.
The creation of a new entrance to the cellar, facing road 1825, was mirrored in the contemporary buildings (0029 phase 2, 2140 phase 2). The new entrance was located towards the southern end of the east wall, and was cut away by later pits on its south side. The entrance was a ramp, surfaced with clay, with no evidence for any individual steps. No post settings or slots were found definitely associated with this entrance.

The building appears to have been abandoned following a fire which was apparently contained within the northern end of the structure. The fire has preserved some structural evidence of the north wall. A carbonized plank (2095) indicated the existence of horizontally laid boarding, lining the sunken feature. Evidence of vertical fill lines in section, incorporating more carbonized planking, indicated a filling of the northern entrance of the phase 1 building, after the laying of the revetment planking. No vertical posts were preserved by charring and the carbonized planks and posts, which had fallen on to the cellar floor, were restricted to the northern end of the building.

Various charred organic items survived in situ on the floor of the building. A barrel (2111), containing a quantity of grain (2112), with more spilling over the side (2355, 2356), appears to have sat on the floor, as the remnants of staves from the base and the grain inside were preserved directly above the floor.
More grain (2126, 2476) was found further to the north within the layer of burning (2081) overlying the clay floor (2253). This was sandwiched between two levels of wickerwork. Above was part of a fine woven structure, resembling a basket (2251, 2252). Below it, on the clay floor, more substantial material was used in the weave (2249, 2250), resembling hurdling rather than wickerwork. In addition, eighteen individual solid lumps of carbonized grain (2388), resembling bread rolls, were recorded, mainly lying above basket 2252, but with others to the south and east lying directly on the clay floor of the cellar. The hurdling, recorded directly above the clay floor, may have constituted a floor covering, or a collapsed partition within the cellar, whilst the finer weave may be the remnants of a basket of bread rolls or cattle feed suspended from the ceiling. The grain may have been stored in barrels similar to 2111, or even constitute the spilled contents of that barrel alone.
A number of broken pots (2110, 2421, 2509) also lay in the debris of the fire. Pot 2509 lay close enough to the floor surface to have been standing in that position, but the other two vessels lay within the layer containing most of the burnt timbering (2081) and may have fallen from a floor above.
Although a number of combustible items within the basement had burnt, the posts and planking around the edge of the cellar had not, implying that the fire may have been on a floor above and that only in the area where the floor had burnt through was there any effect on the contents of the cellar. The incorporation of some burnt planking, within the area of the carbonized wickerwork and grain, implies that the basket or baskets may have fallen from above, possibly from the ceiling, along with some of an intermediate floor.
The carbonized timbers, lying above the floor, comprised mostly planks, with some pieces of post or beams. There were a number of parallel planks (2342, 2343, 2344, 2345, 2347, 2348) at the south end of the burning, possibly connected to each other by a remnant ofa beam or post (2346). The length of these planks got progressively shorter towards the north and some looked to have been cut diagonally at the ends. It is possible that they represent the top timbers of the northern gable end of the building, which fell back on itself as it crashed, in one piece, to the floor below. As there was little recognizable timbering sandwiched below these planks and the floor, their interpretation as a gable end would rule out a two-storied building.
No attempt had been made to clear out the contents of the building, and it had been backfilled with a fairly uniform layer of domestic waste.
The construction features were associated with an MLS pottery assemblage but the filling of the phase 1 building, under the floor of the phase 2 building, included one sherd of EMED pottery. The backfill of the sunken feature contained an EMED pottery assemblage, (S1).