Land South of Links Road/ Lowestoft Road Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk

Between the 9th of October and the 27th of October 2023, Oxford Archaeology (OA) conducted an archaeological evaluation at land south of Links Road and Lowestoft Road, Hopton on Sea, Norfolk (centred TG 5230 0132). Previously a magnetometer survey (geophysical) was carried out at the site and this in addition to the recorded cropmarks had identified enclosure ditches and field systems characteristic of both the Middle Bronze Age and Romano-British periods. Thirty-three evaluation trenches, representing a 3.5% sample of the 8ha site, were excavated, targeting identified geophysical anomalies and recorded cropmarks. Of these, 32 trenches contained one or more archaeological features. Whilst the features were mainly concentrated in the north-east and south-east of the site, there was a broad distribution of archaeological features across the site as a whole. The results of the trenching show a very close correlation with the previously recorded cropmarks, with most of the cropmarks closely corresponding to cut features revealed within the trenches. A relatively large number of additional features, mostly small pits and postholes, which had not registered as cropmarks were also revealed. Very few of these produced finds and most were probably associated with the features represented by the main groups of cropmarks, but they include a tree throw feature and a pit associated with small assemblages of worked flint which might relate to Neolithic activity, Despite the large number of investigated features, the trenching produced only a very small finds assemblage, dominated by Roman pottery (20 sherds; 151g). This has rendered dating of the remains difficult, and in most cases it has not been possible to confirm or refine the interpretation of the cropmarks previously provided by the NMP, which had attributed most of the cropmarks to a long and complex sequence of later prehistoric and Roman settlement and land use. Nonetheless, a small assemblage of Romano-British pottery was recovered from the core of an system of enclosures and boundaries previously interpreted as a later prehistoric to Early Roman settlement (NHER 43494), whilst the recovery of Middle Bronze Age pottery from one ditch making up part of an extensive system of co-axial ditches across the site (NHER 43495) and from a feature probably representing the remains of a cremation burial highlights the potential for some elements of the cropmark complex to be of earlier, Middle Bronze Age, date.