Land northwest of Hill House Lane, Needham Market, Suffolk, IP6 8EA: Archaeological Excavation Report

Set piece excavation based on results of preceding evaluation. excavation area defined and stripped by machine under archaeological supervision, followed by manual cleaning, excavation and recording of exposed features. initial strip triggered a contingency to strip a larger area, exposing a previously unknown ring ditch. The project revealed a previously unknown Bronze Age barrow ditch, a feature that appears to have gradually infilled during the course of the Bronze and early Iron Ages, displaying evidence for protracted visits to the monument during this time. The purported barrow appears to have remained a feature in the landscape that was observed and perhaps respected well into the post-Roman period. Very little Romano-British archaeology was exposed, and the features that were would appear to indicate the proximity of a farmstead of this date within the wider landscape. Along the southeastern site boundary was a sequence of recut linear ditches, all closely dated to the 12th - 14th century AD. The function of these ditches is uncertain; they could be property boundaries relating to Hill House Lane, perhaps related to the medieval market that was granted for the town in 1226AD or elements of a defensive strategy that protected this side of the settlement. An isolated inhumation was disturbed by development groundworks outside of the mitigation area, on the northeast boundary of the site with Stowmarket Road. With only the feet left in situ, there was little information to be gleaned from the grave, however subsequent radiocarbon dating returned a date of 660 - 774 AD (94.5% probability) connecting this burial with early - mid Saxon sunken buildings that have been found in the historic core of Needham Market.