Archaeological Test Pit Excavations in Sudbury, Suffolk, 2014 Carenza Lewis and Catherine Ranson Archaeological Test Pit Excavations in Sudbury, Suffolk 2014 Carenza Lewis and Catherine Ranson Access Cambridge Archaeology McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3ER 01223 761518 [email protected] www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk Front cover image – Primary school children and local volunteers excavating on the Croft by St Gregory’s church (copyright ACA) i Contents 1 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 6 2 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 TEST PIT EXCAVATION AND RURAL SETTLEMENT STUDIES ...................................................................... 7 3 AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND DESIRED OUTCOMES .................................................................... 9 3.1 AIMS ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 3.2 OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................................ 9 3.3 OUTCOMES ............................................................................................................................................. 9 4 LOCATION AND TOWN SETTING ........................................................................................... 10 5 GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 13 6 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 13 6.1 EXCAVATION STRATEGY ....................................................................................................................... 13 6.2 EXCAVATION METHODS ........................................................................................................................ 14 6.3 ON-SITE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SUPERVISION ............................................................................................. 15 6.4 ON-SITE FINDS IDENTIFICATION AND RETENTION .................................................................................. 15 6.5 TRENCH AND TEST PIT CLOSING AND BACKFILLING .............................................................................. 15 6.6 RECORDING .......................................................................................................................................... 15 6.7 FINDS PROCESSING AND RECORDING .................................................................................................... 15 6.7.1 Finds appropriate for recording, analysis, reporting, retention and curation ................ 16 6.7.2 Finds appropriate for disposal after recording and reporting ........................................ 16 6.7.3 Legal ownership of finds ............................................................................................... 16 6.7.4 Curation of Archaeological Finds .................................................................................. 17 7 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ..................................................... 18 7.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................. 18 7.2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................ 24 7.2.1 Prehistoric period .......................................................................................................... 24 7.2.2 Roman period ................................................................................................................ 26 7.2.3 Anglo-Saxon period ....................................................................................................... 27 7.2.4 High and Later Medieval periods .................................................................................. 28 7.2.5 Post-Medieval period .................................................................................................... 30 7.2.6 Undated ......................................................................................................................... 34 8 RESULTS OF THE TEST PIT EXCAVATIONS IN SUDBURY ................................................. 35 9 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................. 77 9.1 PREHISTORIC PERIOD ............................................................................................................................ 77 9.2 ROMAN PERIOD ..................................................................................................................................... 78 9.3 ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD ......................................................................................................................... 78 9.4 HIGH MEDIEVAL PERIOD ....................................................................................................................... 80 9.5 LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD ....................................................................................................................... 81 9.6 POST-MEDIEVAL AND LATER ................................................................................................................ 82 9.7 IMPACT ON PARTICIPANTS .................................................................................................................... 83 10 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 85 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... 86 12 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 87 13 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 90 13.1 POTTERY REPORT (PAUL BLINKHORN) ............................................................................................. 90 13.2 FAUNAL REMAINS (VIDA RAJKOVAČA) ......................................................................................... 105 13.3 LITHICS REPORT (LAWRENCE BILLINGTON) ................................................................................... 113 ii 13.4 FINDS FROM THE SUDBURY TEST PITS ............................................................................................ 115 13.5 MAPS ............................................................................................................................................. 136 List of Figures Figure 1: Map of England with a close up insert of East Anglia and the Suffolk town of Sudbury highlighted in red. .................................................................................................10 Figure 2: The parish of Sudbury, including the village of Ballingdon (Copyright Edina Digimap) ............................................................................................................................11 Figure 3: The extent of the Sudbury conservation area (Copyright Edina Digimap) ............12 Figure 4: A reconstruction of the Late Anglo-Saxon town of Sudbury with the surrounding bank and ditch and modern road plan superimposed (copyright Sudbury History Society) .19 Figure 5: Sudbury town plan c.1200 AD, after the town ditch was backfilled (copyright Sudbury History Society) ....................................................................................................20 Figure 6: The approximate locations of the three manors of Sudbury (Map Copyright Sudbury History Group) .....................................................................................................22 Figure 7: 1881 Map of Sudbury (copyright Ordnance Survey and Sudbury Museum Trust)33 Figure 8: Sudbury test pit locations (not to scale). (Map copyright Edina Digimap).............36 Figure 9: Location map of SUD/14/1 ..................................................................................37 Figure 10: One of the buttons found from SUD/14/1, context 2 ..........................................37 Figure 11: Location map of SUD/14/2 ................................................................................38 Figure 12: Location map of SUD/14/3 ................................................................................39 Figure 13: Location map of SUD/14/4 ................................................................................40 Figure 14: Location map of SUD/14/5 ................................................................................42 Figure 15: Location map of SUD/14/7 ................................................................................44 Figure 16: Location map of SUD/14/8 ................................................................................45 Figure 17: Location map of SUD/14/9 ................................................................................46 Figure 18: The painted glass from SUD/14/9 ......................................................................46 Figure 19: Location map