Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1137 - Area of Medieval Buildings

Moderate amounts of 11th- to 12th-century pottery were found residually in later features and suggest that Late Anglo-Saxon occupation of the site continued without interruption into the early medieval period. During the 12th–13th century timber buildings (houses or workshops) were constructed in the southern part of the site (Area C). Although these were not well preserved (having been truncated by later cellaring) they were represented by sequences of sunken clay floors and associated occupation layers, rows of postholes and the remains of clay walling (Fig. 4; Pls. 2 & 3). Localised areas of scorched floor material probably indicated the positions of internal hearths, while more extensive scorched areas might have resulted from the destruction by fire of at least one of the buildings (G2407). One particularly well-made hearth (G2264) was built using small, rectangular slabs of sandstone. Environmental analysis of samples from occupation layers and probable hearths within the buildings has revealed moderate amounts of flake hammerscale (in association with charcoal) indicative of iron working (for example, G2255 / Sample 13 and G2407 / Sample 17). Also, a posthole associated with one of these medieval buildings (part of G2253 / Sample 5) contained a small quantity of undiagnostic slag, 8g of slag dribbles and a flat piece of iron that could be either smith’s stock or an off-cut from smithing. No complete ground plans of the buildings were found but wall lines, where seen, were perpendicular to Key Street. Where successive buildings were superimposed wall positions seem to have remained unchanged, suggesting that property boundaries were fixed. For example, a north–south alignment of closely spaced postholes (G2259/G2260/G2261) associated with a sequence of clay floors was superseded by a line of postholes (G2252/G2253) on the same alignment but with different dimensions and spacing.The clay-and-timber buildings were sealed by extensive soil deposits (G2251, for example), approximately 0.30m–0.40m thick, containing a large pottery assemblage that has been dated to the mid 13th–mid 14th century. These deposits possibly accumulated during a period of abandonment of the site although (given the proximity of the site to the river and the likelihood of flooding) they might have been dumped in order to raise the ground level. Clay-and-timber buildings were not found in the western and northern parts of the site (Area A and Area B). This might have been due to subsequent horizontal truncation (particularly in Area B, where modern truncation extended to the natural stratum) but it is more likely that during the earlier medieval period those were open areas; certainly there was intense pitting in those areas of the site, and two larger features (G2014 & G2023) in Area B have been interpreted provisionally as medieval gravel quarries, (S1).