Site Event/Activity record ESF22916 - Excavation, Middle Iron Age settlement at Westfield Primary School, Chalkstone Way, Haverhill, Suffolk

PROJECT DETAILS Small amounts of residual pottery and/or worked flints suggest that there was transitory use of the site during the earlier Neolithic and the later Neolithic/earlier Bronze Age. In the later Bronze Age two un-urned cremations were buried in what was probably a small, unenclosed and informal cemetery. Permanent occupation of the site began in the Middle Iron Age, with the establishment of an unenclosed settlement. It contained at least three circular buildings, probably dwellings although one of them (represented by two roughly concentric and penannular ditches) was unusual and might have had a ritual/religious function. Other stratigraphic evidence for the settlement included several ditches/gullies (possibly defining small enclosures), some pits and occasional postholes. The artefactual evidence included a significant pottery assemblage (mostly cooking and storage vessels) found in association with worked flints, fired clay fragments, loomweights, a spindlewhorl and some worked antler fragments. Animal bones and some charred cereal grains are indicative of stock rearing and crop production. Subsequent phases of activity cannot be dated precisely. A linear boundary ditch, probably part of a Roman or later field system, truncated the remains of one of the Middle Iron Age buildings. The boundary ditch was cut by a large, irregular pit, probably a reservoir, with a complicated history of infilling and re-excavation. It contained a moderate assemblage of residual Middle Iron Age pottery and some of its fills were rich in charcoal and heated stones, on a scale that suggests industrial activity. Project status: Complete Yes, Validated Yes Previous/Future Work: Previous Yes, Future No Associated Identifiers: HER event no. HVH 072 NMR No. 1567562 Project Type: Recording project Investigation Type: ''''''Full excavation'''''' Reason for Investigation: Planning condition Monument Type(s)/Period(s): DITCH Iron Age , DITCH Uncertain, RESERVOIR Uncertain, CREMATION Late Bronze Age , ROUND HOUSE Iron Age , PIT Iron Age Artefact Type(s)/Period(s): POTTERY Bronze Age , POTTERY Iron Age , WORKED FLINT Late Prehistoric, LOOMWEIGHT Iron Age , SPINDLEWHORL Iron Age PROJECT LOCATION Area 3.40 Hectares Grid Reference: TL68014593 Point PROJECT CREATOR(S) Brief originator: Local Authority Archaeologist and/or Planning Authority/advisory body Design originator: Jess Tipper Director/Manager: Rhod Gardner Supervisor: Kieron Heard DIGITAL ARCHIVE Recipient: Suffolk County SMR ID: HVH 072 Contents: 'Animal Bones', 'Ceramics', 'Environmental', 'Glass', 'Human Bones', 'Industrial', 'Metal', 'Stratigraphic', 'Survey', 'Wood', 'Worked bone', 'Worked stone/lithics' Media: 'Database', 'Images raster / digital photography', 'Images vector', 'Survey', 'Text' PAPER ARCHIVE Recipient: Suffolk County SMR ID: HVH 072 Contents: 'Stratigraphic' Media: 'Context sheet', 'Matrices', 'Plan', 'Report', 'Section' PHYSICAL ARCHIVE Recipient: Suffolk County SMR ID: HVH 072 Contents: 'Animal Bones', 'Ceramics', 'Environmental', 'Glass', 'Human Bones', 'Industrial', 'Metal', 'Wood', 'Worked bone', 'Worked stone/lithics' BIBLIOGRAPHY Publication Type: Grey literature (unpublished document/manuscript) Title: Middle Iron Age settlement at Westfield Primary School, Chalkstone Way, Haverhill, Suffolk Author(s)/Editor(s): Heard, K Other Bibliographic Details: SCCAS report no. 2013/079 Date: 2014 Issuer/Publisher: Suffolk County Council Place of Issue or Publication: Ipswich Description: A4, 193 pages, wire bound, card covers