Monument record WTN 064 - Prehistoric features and occupation, undated ditch on Land at Mow Hill, Witnesham

A 0.21ha excavation prior to residential development further investigated prehistoric features identified during evaluation. In the Middle Bronze Age, a NE to SW aligned boundary was established, the fills of which contained a small assemblage of Middle Bronze Age pottery. An undated, parallel ditch to the N may be contemporary. It is uncertain whether the ditches formed part of a field system or were outlying elements of a Middle Bronze Age settlement on the high ground to the N and E. A small pit contained a sparse assemblage of Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pottery, the only feature to date to this period. Nearby settlement appears to have continued in some form into the Middle Iron Age, as a cluster of four pits and a more dispersed scatter of smaller pits were dug in the central and N parts of the site. The Middle Iron Age pottery assemblage is the largest by period recovered during the excavation, with part of the assemblage possibly spanning the transition from the Early Iron Age. Most of this assemblage was recovered from the four larger pits. Trackway 1, which consisted of two parallel ditches spaced c.5m apart, dates to the Late Iron Age. It led up the slope from the valley of the river Fynn to the SW, from the approximate direction of the contemporary settlement at Jack’s Field, to the higher ground above the valley to the NE (S1).

Three pieces of worked, or possibly worked flint were recovered from archaeological features and the ploughsoil. The material is not closely dateable but attests to low levels of prehistoric activity on or near the site during this period. Prehistoric remains were encountered in the northeastern corner of the site, consisting of a ditch and a pit, from which were recovered a small number of pottery sherds of Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age date. By close association, three undated pits and two small ditches in the same area may be of a similar date. The small number of finds and sparsity of environmental material recovered from soil samples taken from these features suggest that the activity is peripheral to any nearby areas of settlement, the ditches perhaps forming paddocks or livestock enclosures at the edge of a small farmstead. Three parallel, similar-sized ditches at the eastern edge of the site may be the remains of Late Iron Age or Roman cultivation/drainage channels. Evidence for later activity on the site was confined to land drains that were installed in the 20th century (S2).