ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE REPORT Ravenswood (Former Ipswich Airport) IPS 024, IPS 386, IPS 390, IPS 391, IPS 404, IPS 405, IPS 406, IPS 420 A REPORT ON THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS AND EXCAVATIONS, 1999 - 2000 (Planning app. no. I/98/0314/OL1) Ellen Bales, Clare Good and Jezz Meredith Field Team Suffolk C.C. Archaeological Service December 2006 Lucy Robinson, County Director of Environment and Transport Endeavour House, Russell Road, Ipswich, IP1 2BX __________________________________ SCCAS Report No. 2006/229 Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors Acknowledgements Summary SMR information Chapter 1: General Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Historical Background 1.2.1 Prehistoric 1.2.2 Roman 1.2.3 Saxon 1.2.4 Medieval 1.2.5 Post medieval 1.2.6 Modern 1.3. Archaeological Works Glossary of terms Chapter 2: IPS 386 Summary 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Methodology 2.3 Results 2.3.1 Evaluation 2.3.2 Excavation 2.3.2.1 Period I phase 1 (Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age) 2.3.2.2 Period I phase 2 (Bronze Age) 2.3.2.3 Period II (Post-Medieval) 2.4 Finds and environmental evidence 2.4.1 Introduction 2.4.2 Household Objects 2.4.2.1 Pottery 2.4.2.2 Glass 2.4.3 Buildings and Services 2.4.3.1 Structural Metalwork 2.4.3.2 Ceramic Building Materials 2.4.4 Miscellaneous Fittings 2.4.5 Miscellaneous and unidentified objects 2.4.6 Flint 2.4.6.1 Worked Flint 2.4.6.2 Burnt Flint and other stone 2.4.7 Biological evidence 2.4.7.1 Animal Bone 2.4.7.2 Coal and burnt material 2.4.8 Environmental evidence 2.4.9 Summary 2.5 Conclusions/Discussion Chapter 3: IPS 024, 390, 391, 420 Summary 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Methodology 3.3 Results 3.3.1 IPS 024 3.3.2 IPS 390 3.3.3 IPS 391 3.3.4 IPS 420 3.4 Finds and Environmental evidence 3.4.1 Pottery 3.4.1.1 Prehistoric Pottery 3.4.1.2 Roman Pottery 3.4.1.3 Post Roman Pottery 3.4.2 Buildings and Services 3.4.2.1 Structural Metalwork 3.4.2.2 Ceramic Building Materials 3.4.3 Miscellaneous fittings 3.4.4 Stone and Lava 3.4.5 Flint 3.4.5.1 Worked flint 3.4.5.2 Burnt Flint and other stone 3.4.6 Biological Evidence 3.4.6.1 Animal Bone 3.4.6.2 Coal and burnt material 3.4.7 Environmental evidence 3.4.7.1 IPS 390 3.4.7.2 IPS 420 3.5 Conclusions/Discussion Chapter 4: IPS 404, 405, 406 Summary 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Methodology 4.3 Results 4.3.1 Area 1: IPS 404 4.3.1.1 Period 1 (Early Bronze Age) 4.3.1.2 Period 2 (post-medieval) 4.3.1.3 Period 6 (20th Century) 4.3.1.4 Period 0 (undated) 4.3.2 Area 2: IPS 405 4.3.2.1 Period 2 phase i (1st Century AD) 4.3.2.2 Period 2 phase ii (Roman) 4.3.2.3 Period 5 (post-medieval) 4.3.2.4 Period 6 (20th Century) 4.3.2.5 Period 0 (undated) 4.3.3 Area 3: IPS 406 4.3.3.1 Period 1 (prehistoric) 4.3.3.2 Period 2 (Roman) ii 4.3.3.3 Period 3 (Saxon?) 4.3.3.4 Period 4 (medieval?) 4.3.3.5 Period 5 (post-medieval) 4.3.3.6 Period 6 (20th Century) 4.3.3.7 Period 0 (undated) 4.4 Finds and environmental evidence 4.4.1 Introduction 4.4.2 Pottery 4.4.2.1 Prehistoric pottery 4.4.2.2 Roman pottery 4.4.2.3 Post-Roman pottery 4.4.3 Buildings and services 4.4.3.1 Structural metalwork 4.4.3.2 Ceramic building material 4.4.3.3 Other building material 4.4.4 Miscellaneous and unidentified objects 4.4.4.1 Vessels (non-ceramic) 4.4.4.2 Agricultural and equestrian objects 4.4.4.3 Industrial waste 4.4.4.4 Miscellaneous fittings 4.4.4.5 Unidentified 4.4.5 Flint 4.4.5.1 Worked flint 4.4.5.2 Burnt flint and other stone 4.4.6 Biological evidence 4.4.6.1 Animal bone 4.4.6.2 Shell 4.4.6.3 Coal and burnt material Chapter 5: Discussion 5.1 Later Prehistoric 5.2 Late Iron Age/Romano-British Period 5.3 Saxon Period 5.4 Medieval Period 5.5 Post-Medieval Period 5.6 The Airport 5.7 Conclusions References Appendix 1: Context List IPS 386 Appendix 2: Context List IPS 024, 390, 391, 420 Appendix 3: Context List IPS 404 Appendix 4: Context List IPS 405 Appendix 5: Context List IPS 406 Appendix 6: Bulk finds catalogue for all sites Appendix 7: Pottery finds catalogue for all sites Appendix 8: Ipswich Airport (IPS 024/386/390/391/399/404-406): the finds iii List of Figures 1.1. Site location plan 1.2. Phases of work undertaken 1.3. Location of site and records held on county Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) 1.4. 1st edition OS map extract, c.1880 1.5. 1991 Air photograph of former Ipswich Airport 1.6. Archaeological investigations on the former Ipswich Airport 2.1. Location of evaluation trenches and excavation area 2.2. Plan of Trenches 1-12 2.3. Plan of Evaluation Trenches 15-20 2.4. Plan of Trench 23 and feature sections 2.5. Section of features 0015, 0016 and 0102, Trench 4 2.6. Plan of Excavation area. 2.7. Detailed plan of Area A 2.8. Feature sections from Area A 2.9. Plan of Area B 2.10. Feature sections from Area B 2.11. Plan of Area C 2.12. Feature sections from Area C 2.13. Other feature sections mentioned in the text 3.1. Location of Trenches and site code location 3.2. IPS 024. Plan of Trenches 3, 4 and 5 3.3. IPS 390. Plan of Trench 22 and sections of features within it 3.4. IPS 390. Plan of Trench 23 and sections of features within it 3.5. IPS 390. Plan of Trench 24a and b and sections of features within it 3.6. IPS 390. Plan of Trench 24a, c and d and sections of features within it 3.7. IPS 391. Plan of Trench 26 and sections of features within it 3.8. IPS 420. Location of pits within IPS 420 3.9. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 1, 2 and 6 3.10. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 7 and 9 3.11. IPS 420. Plan of Trench 10 3.12. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 11 and 12 and sections of features within 11 3.13. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 13 and 14 3.14. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 15, 16 and 17 3.15. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 18 and 19 3.16. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 20 and 21 and sections of features within 21 3.17. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 25, 27 and 28 and sections of features within 25 3.18. IPS 420. Plan of Trenches 29 and 30 and sections of features within 30 3.19. Phase plan of IPS 390, showing Prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and medieval features within this complex 3.20. Illustration of pottery from ditch 0191 3.21. Illustration of pottery from ditch 0191 4.1. Evaluation trenching for IPS 399 and suggested areas for further excavation 4.2. Evaluation trenching superimposed over the 1st edition OS map of 1882 4.3. Area 1 (IPS 404), showing Period 1 pit 0012 (Early Bronze Age), parallel Period 5 ditches (Post-medieval), undated features and 20th century F.I.D.O.s iv 4.4. Sections from features in IPS 404 4.5. Excavated features in Area 2 (IPS 405) 4.6. Sections from features in IPS 405 4.7. Excavated features in Area 3 (IPS 406) 4.8. Sections from features in IPS 406 4.9. Field boundaries recorded in 1st edition OS map 4.10. Location of F.I.D.O.s found within IPS 404-406 in relation to the position of airport runways 5.1. Position of evaluation trenches within sites IPS 024, 390, 391 and 420 and location of open excavation areas IPS 386, 404, 405 and 406 5.2. Location of prehistoric features found within the study area and nearby find spots and monuments 5.3. Location of ring-ditches (indicating burial mounds) associated with the barrow cemetery to the south of Ipswich airport area 5.4. Location of Late Iron Age to Roman features and find spots 5.5. Location of Saxon and medieval features found within study area and nearby medieval features 5.6. Features of post-medieval date superimposed over a plan of field boundaries shown on the 1st edition OS map of 1882 5.7. Airport runway and associated building. Runway location based on aerial photographs taken in 1991 List of Tables 1.1. Summary of records held on county Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) 2.1. Finds quantities (from site IPS 386) 2.2. Summary of pottery quantification (from site IPS 386) 2.3. Summary of pottery by feature (from site IPS 386) 2.4. Charred plant macrofossils and other remains from Ipswich Airport (Site IPS 386) 3.1. Finds quantities (from site IPS 024, 390, 391, 420) 3.1.