Monument record BRF 159 - Bronze Age funerary activity and a Saxon settlement, Land off Loraine Way, Bramford

2018: Headland Archaeology undertook an archaeological evaluation in advance of a residential development. The evaluation identified a possible Bronze Age ring-ditch along with some pits and ditches that may have been associated with early Saxon settlement within the site boundary in an area that was not evaluated. A field system of possible Saxon/medieval date was also identified. Much of the archaeological material at the site was sealed by a thick deposit of colluvium which derived from agricultural activity on the site since the post-Roman period. Modern field boundaries and allotments were also evident in the archaeological record. (S1)

2022: An archaeological excavation targeted the results of preceding geophysical survey and trial-trench evaluation in 2018; three areas in the centre and south of the site (with a combined area of 1.95ha) were investigated. This included the location of a ring-ditch (BRF 003), with a second northerly ring-ditch left in situ beyond the excavation areas, both of which were identified as cropmarks.
Prehistoric activity was represented by small Early and Middle Neolithic pits, along with further pits in the south of the site containing undiagnostic worked flints. The ring-ditch of a probable Bronze Age barrow (BRF003) was excavated to the south; although not securely dated by artefacts, its morphology is suggestive of a Bronze Age date. Given the presence of the second barrow ring-ditch to the north, this was probably part of a funerary/monumental landscape situated on higher ground overlooking the River Gipping. A number of large, linear, NW/SE orientated, silted hollows extended across the east of the site, interpreted as the remnants of dry river valleys. The main focus of activity on site was an Early Saxon (5th to 7th century) settlement comprising ten sunken-featured buildings (SFBs) and a further six possible SFBs, often occurring in pairs. These were situated around the natural hollows, which appear to have been utilised as midden sites during this period, in particular being the focus of deposition of substantial quantities of animal bone waste. Although no archaeological features were identified, Roman period artefacts were recovered from the site, many from the silting within these hollows – primarily comprising re-used CBM and curated small finds, deposited during the Saxon period and recovered through metal-detecting. Two possible post-built hall buildings were also present to their south-east. It is possible that the Bronze Age barrow survived and was re-used during the Saxon period as pottery was recovered from the ring-ditch fills. Several Saxon high-status objects were also recovered from surrounding plough-spread mound material. Although no in situ burials were encountered, it is suspected that these objects may have derived from Saxon interments into the remnant prehistoric monument. Or perhaps the barrow was used as a gathering place. It is posited that the settlement perhaps passed out of use with the growth of Gippeswic, approximately four miles south of the site at the confluence of the Rivers Gipping and Orwell. Following the decline of the Early Saxon settlement, ENE/WSW aligned boundary ditches of Middle Saxon date evidence the creation of the agricultural fieldscape, later replaced by a rectilinear field-system during the High Medieval period. The Bronze Age barrow appears to have endured and to have been used as a reference point in this later layout.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2022 (S3)

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