Land East of Beccles Road, Loddon, Norfolk. Archaeological Excavation Report

Between the 23rd September and the 1st November 2024, Oxford Archaeology carried out archaeological excavations in three areas (Areas 1-3) on land east of Beccles Road in Loddon, Norfolk (centred on TM 3679 9826). The excavations, covering a total area of 0.96ha, targeted features identified during previous programmes of geophysical survey and trial trenching carried out at the site. The earliest remains comprised Mesolithic worked flints and Neolithic flints and pottery, which were predominantly residual finds, although a Neolithic finds assemblage within a tree throw in Area 2 suggested utilisation of natural features. Three Early Bronze Age cremation burials were exposed in the centre of Area 3, close to an unurned cremation recorded during the trial trenching, with one containing a miniature inverted urn and another containing pyre-related deposits. These were enclosed by a partially exposed curvilinear ditch which may predate the cremations. Neolithic worked flints were retrieved from the ditch, which may be the remnants of an earlier mortuary enclosure, potentially representing a continuity of prehistoric funerary activity at the site. Archaeological features dating to the Iron Age were recorded across the higher ground in Area 2 and consisted of insubstantial gullies and dispersed discrete features. These features produced pottery (predominantly of Middle Iron Age forms), fired clay (including loom weight and oven/kiln furniture fragments), animal bone and a pair of Late Iron Age copper alloy tweezers. A series of substantial ditches revealed across all three areas were part of a Romano-British field system on an east-south-east to west-northwest or north-north-east to south-south-west alignment. Further smaller contemporary features were also identified in Area 1, consisting of truncated enclosure ditches, a rectangular post-built structure and additional pits and ditches. A small ring-ditch with a central pit/posthole was also revealed in the south-west corner of Area 1, but its sterile fill meant that it was unclear whether the feature represents a Bronze Age 'mini' barrow, an insubstantial roundhouse, or a hayrick. The Romano-British pottery assemblage showed a clear peak in activity in the 1st-2nd century AD, with later pottery being minimal. After the Roman period there was a hiatus in activity until the creation of a post medieval field boundary system, aligned north to south and east to west, visible on 19th century historic mapping with ditches backfilled during the 20th century as field sizes steadily expanded. A large area of intercutting extraction/quarry pits was also recorded in the southwestern corner of Area 2. These produced medieval to post-medieval finds (including ceramic building material, pottery and clay tobacco pipe fragments).