Monument record EYE 241 - Iron Age trackway and features, prehistoric features, Saxon Cemetery and Medieval features at Eye Airfield Parcel 13A.

Merged from EYE 123
2015: Two distinct areas of Iron Age activity were identified during evaluation trenching on Parcels 13A and 13B. A Pair of parallel ditches, situated 7.4m apart, were identified on the east side of Parcel 13A. The ditches run on a north-south alignment. The ditches are remains of a trackway which was seen in several trenches and contained Iron Age pottery. An area of cobbles within the trackway was encountered and it has been suggested that parts of the trackway may have had a metaled surface. A single sherd of Roman pottery was found suggesting that the trackway was continually beyond the Iron Age. The trackway may be the continuation of the trackway seen at EYE 083.
Ten small pits and post holes were encounters across the development area for Parcel 13B situated to the east. Only two of these features can be dated to the Early Iron Age period. There is little to suggest that the function of the pits and post hole beyond two that contained burnt flint, suggesting that they may be possible rubbish pits.

Two postholes containing Early Neolithic worked flint and pottery of either a Early Neolithic or Late Bronze Age date were also identified in the west of the site. It has been suggested that these postholes are indicative of a structure of Early Neolithic date but it is also possible that the post holes are of Late Bronze Age date as confident dating of the feature is problematic. Northwest of these features is a ditch that has been tentatively dated to the Middle Bronze Age and may be part of the periphery of a prehistoric field system that existed in the Yaxley and Eye area. Early Neolithic flint and Late Neolithic pottery was recovered from the ditch but features of the type are not synonymous with the Neolithic (S1).

See also Anglo-Saxon cemetary and Roman, Med and Post-medieval features.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2015 (S3)

The most significant discovery was the western part of an Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery, with a total of 99 graves recorded. The focal point of this cemetery was probably centred around the summit of the hill, located c. 30m east of the mitigation area. Only 29% of the graves contained human skeletal remains and these are in a poor to destroyed condition, probably as a result of the acidic, free-draining sandy geology of the site. In contrast, 76% of the recorded graves produced artefacts, including metalwork, textiles, non-textile mineral preserved organics, amber beads, glass beads and ceramics. The recovery of this large assemblage of material culture is, in part, because of the methodology employed, which involved the block lifting and laboratory micro- excavation of all artefacts. Preliminary assessment of the grave goods suggests a late 5th- to late 6th-century chronology for the cemetery. Whilst there are several exceptional items among the grave goods – both in terms of rarity and research potential – the assemblage as a whole points towards a lower to middling status community at Eye, with minimal evidence for ‘high-status’ goods recorded. It is probable that the cemetery relates to the Early Anglo-Saxon settlement recorded to the immediate south of the site at Hartismere High School, to which it was connected through a north to south aligned trackway that possibly had prehistoric or Romano-British origins. In addition to the cemetery and trackway, other archaeological remains included two Early Neolithic pits, a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pit, several Romano-British pits and ditches, a single Early Anglo-Saxon pit and four medieval to post-medieval field boundaries. Several discrete features are not currently assigned to archaeological periods because of a lack of dateable artefacts from their fills – including a single unurned cremation, probably unconnected to the Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Collectively, the recorded remains point towards the steady occurrence of small-scale, edge of settlement and agricultural activities over an extensive period of time, with the cremation and inhumations also demonstrating that the site served an important funerary function to local communities at various points in the past (S4).