Monument record MNL 002 - High Lodge, Mildenhall

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Summary

Palaeolithic lake-side living site. Terminal Palaeolithic and Mesolithic? Items from here or near here.

Location

Grid reference Centred TL 7391 7540 (117m by 136m)
Map sheet TL77NW
Civil Parish MILDENHALL, FOREST HEATH, SUFFOLK

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

Palaeolithic lake-side living site. It has long been the focus of Palaeolithic investigation and there is a history of controversy regarding its chronology and geology.

Two series of artefacts are present:
1: Scrapers, denticulates, flakes and cores.
2: Slightly derived handaxes. Twisted ovates are present but in very small amounts.

Fauna includes Straight tusked elephant, Rhinoceros, Horse, Deer and Bovids.

Excellent summary of current thinking by Pettitt and White 2012 (S12)

19th century discovered as a result of brick-earth extraction in the by Simeon Fenton of Mildenhall. Large number of stray finds.
1876: Skertchly appears to have been the first person to record the geological sequence in about 1876.
1920s: Excavated in 1920 by Professor Marr et al).
1962: Excavations for British Museum by Sieveking
1988: Excavations showed that lacustrine clays of Cromerian (Pres MIS12) date (with an in situ flake industry) were transported, distorted and dumped on top of Anglian till and then overlain by gravels and sands deposited in a warm phase of the Anglian, topped by soliflucted till of another cold phase of the Anglian glaciation. The gravels contained derived hand axes.

1998: Rapid earthwork survey recorded pits and extensive quarrying, as marked on OS maps, 2nd edition 1904 OS shows the area as heathland where large pits are illustrated (S10)

There is a typologically later flat butted cordate "bout coupe" which could indeed be associated with the Lower Palaeolithic material or could be a Late Middle Palaeolithic example included due to the confused excavation history, (S22).

Jacobi (S21) notes a Terminal Palaeolithic Bruised Blade from "High Lodge Hill" in Liverpool Museum and a "Wangford type" (Mesolithic?) convex scraper from High Lodge. He places the blade find spot close to "High Lodge" in Eriswell. However the "hill" strongley suggests the more famous "high Lodge" in Mildenhall Parish.

See (S1-S18)

No further details found in Ipswich Museum Accession registers September 2020.

Sources/Archives (27)

  • <S1> Bibliographic reference: 1911. Victoria County History, Suffolk (VCH). Sturge W A, 235-238, 242-246.
  • <S2> Article in serial: Owles, E. & Smedley, N.. 1963. Archaeology in Suffolk, 1963. XXIX 3.
  • <S3> Article in serial: Owles, E. J. and N. Smedley. 1966. Archaeology in Suffolk, 1966. XXX.3, pp. 275–283..
  • <S4> Article in serial: Owles, E. & Smedley, N.. Archaeology in Suffolk, 1967.
  • <S5> Bibliographic reference: Moir J R. 1927. The Antiquity of Man in East Anglia.
  • <S6> Bibliographic reference: Wymer, J.J.. 1985. Palaeolithic Sites of East Anglia.
  • <S7> Index: Ipswich Museum. IPSMG card. IPSMG, card 1948-72, 1948; 1929-75; 1927-82; 1927-82.1-19, 1929-130.
  • <S8> Unpublished document: Basil Brown. Basil Brown Archive. Brown B, XI, 93.
  • <S9> Article in serial: Martin, E.A., Pendleton, C. & Plouviez, J.. 1989. Archaeology in Suffolk 1988. XXXVII (1).
  • <S10> Unpublished document: Pendleton, C. and Sommers, M.. 1998. Rapid Earthwork Identification Survey for Forest Enterprise.
  • <S11> Digital archive: Wymer, J.J.. 1999. The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain (TERPs) The Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain (TERPS). 22879.
  • <S12> Bibliographic reference: Pettitt, P.B. & White, M.J.. 2012. The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World. 121.
  • <S13> Article in serial: White, M.J. & Ashton, N; Bridgland.. 2019. Twisted Handaxes in Middle Pleistocene Britain and their Implications for Regional-scale Cultural Variation and the Deep History of Acheulean Hominin Groups.
  • <S14> Bibliographic reference: Smith, R.A. 1931. Sturge Collection.
  • <S14> Bibliographic reference: N. M. Ashton, J. Cook, S. G. Lewis and J. Rose, (eds). 1992. High Lodge. Excavations by G. de G. Sieveking 1962–1968 and J. Cook 1988.
  • <S15> Bibliographic reference: Roe, Derek.. 1968. A Gazetteer of British Lower & Middle Palaeolithic sites.
  • <S16> Unpublished document: Basil Brown. Basil Brown Archive. Basil Brown archive: volume.
  • <S16> Article in serial: Harrison K. 1938. A Note on High Lodge, Mildenhall. Harrison K, `A Note on High Lodge, Mildenhall', PPS, 4, 1938, 326-328.
  • <S17> Article in serial: Whitaker et al. 1891. The Geology of parts of Cambridgeshire & of Suffolk.
  • <S18> Article in serial: Marr, J.E., Smith, R.A. & Moir, J.R.#. 1919-1922. Excavations at High Lodge, Mildenhall in 1920. Marr J E, Smith R A & Moir J R, `Excavations at High Lodge, Mildenhall in 1920', PPSEA, 3, 1919-1922.
  • <S19> Index: OS. OS Card. OS, card TL77NW29.
  • <S20> Bibliographic reference: Evans, J.. 1897. The Ancient Stone implements, weapons and ornaments of Great Britain.
  • <S21> Digital archive: Jacobi, R.. 2014. Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Lithic Artefact (PaMELA) database. 277, 11426.
  • <S22> Unpublished document: Cutler, Hannah. 2013. Understanding Late Middle Palaeolithic Neandertal Landscape-use during Short-Term Occupations in Britain.
  • <S23> Article in serial: Martin, E.A., Pendleton, C. & Plouviez, J.. 2003. Archaeology in Suffolk 2002. XXXX (3).
  • <S24> Article in serial: Davis et al. 2021. Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: Human Occupation of Britain during the Early Middle Pleistocene and its European Context.
  • <S25> Article in serial: Ashton, N. Davis, R. Kirsty E.H. Penkmane, G. Russell Coopef. 2021. Cultural Mosaics, Social Structure, and Identity: The Acheulean threshold in Europe.

Finds (20)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (3)

Related Events/Activities (6)

Record last edited

Jun 22 2021 1:14PM

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