Land off Keightley Way, Tuddenham St Martin, Suffolk: An Archaeological Evaluation

The requirements for the evaluation were outlined in a Written Scheme of Investigation that was prepared by GHC and approved by SCCAS prior to the commencement of fieldwork. The evaluation consisted of the excavation and investigation of 13no. 30m and 2no. 20m trial trenches at 1.8m wide (a total of 430m of trial trench) The principal discovery was that of a large, natural, silted-up pond in the low-lying area in the north-east corner of the site, which contained a modest assemblage of prehistoric worked flint and flint-working waste, including a partly-manufactured rough-out for an Early Neolithic axe, a flint core and three possible hammerstones. The lithic assemblage was chronologically varied, with dateable material ranging from the Mesolithic through to the Iron Age, which indicates that the material was probably washed into the pond over many millennia from the higher ground to the north, south and west. The deposits within the pond were sealed by a relatively thick layer of colluvium. Apart from a possible small pit and a probable brushwood drain, the only other feature identified by the evaluation was a large extraction pit at the eastern edge of the site. There was no dating evidence in the excavated fills of the pit and soil samples only yielded small amounts of comminuted charcoal and burnt unworked flint. However, a post-medieval brick and tile works is shown on the 1884 Ordnance Survey map of the area immediately east of Keightley Way, c. 250m east of the site, so the extraction pit could be associated with this industrial complex.