Monument record LXD 135 - Bronze Age field system and burnt mound, Iron Age features and medieval and undated ditches, Framlingham Road, Laxfield

Evaluation and excavation recorded a Bronze Age ‘burnt mound’ along the N edge of the development area, including a well and troughs, along with a deposit of heat-altered flint mixed within the ploughsoil. The remnants of the heat-altered flint mixed within the ploughsoil suggested the burnt mound had likely been plough damaged and this was indeed the case. The well was only partially hand-excavated due to the wet ground conditions, and was machine augered to a depth of 3.5m.
A probable Bronze Age field system extended across the central higher part of the site and features and artefacts dating to the Middle Iron Age were identified at the centre. 3 penannular gullies of this date were identified within 2 earlier enclosure ditches that had been completely or partially infilled by the time of their construction. The enclosure ditches were dated by finds that are in the process of being analysed and are presumed to be Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age. The larger of the 3 penannular gullies produced a large assemblage of finds suggesting it formed the remnant of a roundhouse. Other features included a small number of pits associated with the Middle Iron Age settlement, 3 smaller medieval ditches and several undated ditches that were equally spaced apart, and most likely relate to medieval or post-medieval drainage (S1).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2021 (S2).

An initial evaluation saw 51 trial trenches excavated, with two areas (0.8ha) subsequently fully excavated, targeted to investigate archaeological features of prehistoric date. Area 1 was opened over a burnt mound complex. A well and two troughs were recorded, all associated with heat-altered flint and evidence of burning. A borehole sample through the well’s fills produced plant remains and a pollen sequence that show significant changes in the local prehistoric flora, triggered possibly by woodland coppicing for the ‘hot stone’ technology of the burnt mound. Two radiocarbon dates from the sequence indicate the well’s infilling (i.e. disuse) in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1500–c. 1100 BC), suggesting the activity belongs to earlier in the same period. In Area 2 a pattern of intercutting ditches and enclosures was revealed. The earliest are dated by pottery to the Middle Bronze Age (Phase 1), making them broadly contemporary with the end of the burnt mound activity in Area 1. Later in the Iron Age (Phase 2) a roundhouse was sited within the Bronze Age earthwork. It is well dated by pottery to the Middle Iron Age (c. 400–c. 100 BC). Two smaller roundhouses were within an adjacent enclosure. The prehistoric archaeology in Area 2 was cut by multiple linear features that probably relate to medieval farming (Phase 3). A scarcity of pottery and other finds impacts the legibility of the archaeological record, however, historical records suggest that a pastural regime of grazing and meadowland dominated locally from Domesday onwards (AD 1086) (S3).