| Summary
An archaeological
excavation was carried out in advance of a residential development
on a plot of land to the south of Friends Field, Bures St Mary.
The excavation followed
on from a previous evaluation which had identified a number of undated
ditches and a single pit of possible prehistoric date.
It comprised an
open area around the pit and a series of trenches targeting the
predicted locations of ditch junctions to confirm their relationships
and to obtain dating evidence.
Within the open area
a further five pits were recorded. All the pits finally recorded
form a linear group that appear to be associated although their
purpose could not be positively determined.
Three of these pits
contained small fragments of medieval pottery although a significant
amount of medieval pottery was recovered from a subsoil layer, interpreted
as a hillwash, suggesting these may be residual finds in later features.
Two medieval silver hammered coins were also recovered from the
subsoil layer.
The targeted ditch junctions confirmed that the majority of the
ditches were probably related. A small amount of medieval pottery
was recovered from the fills and they appeared to be partially sealed
by the hillwash layer indicating a probable medieval date for these
features.
A ditch on the south-east
side of the development area exhibited a later re-cut. This ditch
is coincidental to the existing edge of the development are indicating
that medieval pattern of plot boundaries is partly preserved in
the modern layout of the village.
Three sherds of Roman
pottery were also recovered from the ditch fills.
These are residual
finds that indicate Roman activity in the vicinity of the site.
(Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service for CgMs Consulting).
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