Land south-east of The Street, Eyke, Suffolk

Between the 5th of August to the 6th of September 2024 Oxford Archaeology undertook an archaeological excavation off The Street in Eyke, Suffolk, in advance of the development of the site. This followed on from a geophysical survey and trial trenching across the site which recorded the presence of archaeological remains of prehistoric to post-medieval date. Two ring-ditches, a ditch and a series of pits were recorded in the central south-eastern part of the mitigation area which could only be assigned a broad later prehistoric date. Although these features produced several sherds of Early Neolithic pottery, two sherds of possible Early Bronze Age pottery and a small quantity of struck flints, these finds were probably residually deposited, as the morphology of the ring-ditches more feasibly suggests they dated from the later Bronze Age to Iron Age. In the north-west of the site, a trackway, a sub-square enclosure, several dispersed pits and a recut boundary of Middle Iron Age date were recorded. These features probably related to an area of settlement. Although only a few finds were recovered from these features, four fragmented triangular fired clay weights point towards textile manufacturing on or in the near vicinity of the site in this period. Six pits in the north of the site were tentatively phased to the high medieval period. Two of these pits contained concentrations of deliberately deposited oyster shells. Several post-medieval boundary ditches and two possible fence-lines were also recorded across the excavation area, probably related to agricultural exploitation across this part of the parish.