Monument record LKH 393 - Undated features at RAF Lakenheath F35 expansion (SA) MON + EVAL+ EXC

2018: Full excavation report to follow.
Evaluation and excavation on the S side of the airfield at RAF Lakenheath revealed a well-preserved heathland landscape and Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age occupation. Many of the trenches contained deep deposits of buried soils and sequences of wind-blown sands covering an area of more than seven hectares. Following the evaluation, the focus of the excavation was on a trench that had produced Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age pottery from a dark sand layer. A 15m x 20m area was opened, gridded and excavated through a humic palaeosol underlying a substantial wind-blown sand deposit. The darker material produced substantial quantities of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age pottery, worked flint of the same date, as well as limited Mesolithic flint and heat-altered stone. This indicated an unusual focus of occupation and analysis work is ongoing. The periods of sandblow overlying the material were not dated within the excavation, but elsewhere on the base this has sealed Roman features, with documentary and antiquarian reports describing severe episodes in the 17th century. The presence of buried soil layers sealed beneath the wind-blown sand provide important data about the landscape, environment and land use during the Mesolithic to Middle Saxon periods of archaeological occupation at RAF Lakenheath. Other features were infrequently encountered in the evaluation, but included evidence for an undated cremation burial in the form of a small quantity of redeposited pyre debris in a pit at the W end of the works and a single undated ditch following the natural slope of the land. Other features were shallow and appeared to have naturally occurring fills; these may represent undulations and disturbances in the natural geology rather than archaeological activity.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2018. (S1)

Archaeological Monitoring of several geotechnical ground investigaiton The works recorded no features or finds, but generally the soil profiles appeared well preserved, with any significant levels of modern truncation being isolated. It is likely that this apparent lack of archaeological remains relates to the limited areas exposed in this phase of groundworks. (S2).

2018 Evaluation: A total of 11 trenches were excavated in areas D and E. Two rather dubious features, a possible pit and a possible gully were identified as well as a possible natural hollow containing flints that appear to have been subjected to extreme cold; all were undated. The southern trenches, closest to the taxiway, produced evidence of buried turfs, windblown sands and primary subsoils. (S3)

2019:The archaeological horizons were well preserved. Underlying these was a deposit of windblown sand, likely built up during the medieval and post-medieval periods. Underlying the windblown material was a deposit of humose-enriched coversand, which contained concentrations of Beaker pottery and worked flint, particularly in its lower horizon, alongside heat altered flint and stone, and very low levels of calcinated bone and snail shell. The finds assemblage was composed of material that suggested domestic dumps of material that had been transported from its primary production and use areas, but was unlikely to have been moved far, suggesting nearby occupation. Environmental and soil analysis suggested that the soil was the result of deforestation of the landscape, with heathland taking over, indicated by the pollen profile and podsolisation of the coversand. There was a suggestion from the soil structure, pollen and macrofossils that there was tillage/ cultivation occurring locally and that soil was being imported to the site. Natural features, interpreted as root hollows, were excavated and found to also contain artefacts and ecofacts similar in composition to the soil layers, and it is interpreted that this suggests deliberate deforestation, or at least management and levelling of the soil horizons, possibly further indicating agricultural practices. It has been difficult to directly tie the possible tillage/land management to the Beaker occupation, but it is considered likely that they are associated. Excavations to the north-west uncovered a freeze thaw deposit and natural hollow/mere (S4).

See also LKH 394