Monument record LVT 024 - Bronze Age ring ditch, part of a complex of four barrows

Ring ditch with slight mound and central mark. Part of LVT 010 complex. N side skirted by ditch/cropmark (S1).
September-December 1978: Excavated prior to destruction by Ipswich southern bypass. Geophysical surveys added no further information. Excavation demonstrated ring ditch as 26.5m in diameter, 3.5m wide and 2m deep, cut by later boundary ditch on N side. Around central area was thin scatter of BA pottery, including rusticated sherds and a few possible beaker. Also found was a large sherd of Darmsden type Iron Age vessel(S2).
Small patch of cremated bone, containing 10 human long bone fragments, found near unverified NW edge of ring ditch. This has given a C14 date of 3340+/- 80bp (HAR-3741)
1740-1525 cal.BC (S3).
The ring ditch is clearly visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, centred on circa TM23824080. The internal area of the ring ditch appears as a darker area, possibly due to plough destruction, with a darker patch about 6 by 3 metres potentially marking the remains of the central burial. The ditch appears slightly narrower on the aerial photographs than was revealed by excavation, at about 2.5 metres, but the mapped plan revealed the barrow to be approximately 30 metres in diameter at its widest point. A linear cropmark, probably a later boundary marker, appears to respect the barrow mound but possibly takes advantage of the ditch on its northern edge (see LVT 010). (S4, S5)