Monument record ETT 060 - OUTLINE RECORD: Prehistoric, Romanm and medieval activity, Land To The East Of Hadleigh Road Elmsett (PCA) EVAL

Excavation identified a background scatter of struck flints, suggesting low-level prehistoric activity on the site. An early Roman (c. mid-1st- to mid-2nd-century) farmstead was represented by a complex set of ditched enclosures that showed several phases of changing organisation, albeit respecting similar alignments. The remains of a rectangular building with posthole and slot foundations were present within the enclosure system at the southern edge of site; three ovens were recorded further to the east. A notable assemblage of pottery, animal bone and other artefacts was recovered from a ditch that appeared to form the eastern boundary of the farmstead.
There was a break in archaeologically visible activity until the medieval period. A series of earlier medieval ditches later developed into an enclosure containing extraction pits and various subdivisions. The enclosure ditch was recut on a larger scale in the later medieval period, by which time the enclosure contained a hollow and associated metalled surface. The hollow contained a range of late medieval and early post-medieval domestic finds, indicating continued use into the 16th century. The lack of identifiable structures but relatively large quantity of finds suggest that the enclosure was part of a farmyard or other working area attached to a nearby farmstead.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2022 (S1)