Late Bronze Age to Iron Age double-ditched enclosure and cremations, Hall Road (EHER 46803)

Trial trenching in 2006 recorded a small area of Bronze Age/Iron Age activity on the western side of the site. A subsequent excavation in the same year identified the features were associated with a double-ditched enclosure in the western portion of the site, of which the eastern edge was revealed within the excavation area. A series of discrete Iron Age pits and postholes were located across the site, predominantly, but not exclusively, within the double-ditched enclosure. A later phase of Iron Age activity was interpreted from a ditch which cut through the enclosure. Also cut through the terminus of the enclosure ditch was a cremation pit. A second cremation was located in an isolated position outside the enclosure, to the south-west of the entranceway, and is thought to have been interred after the enclosure went out of use.

August 2006. Trial trenching. The trial trench evaluation revealed service trenches and a density of archaeological features in one trench. Trench 24 contained eight pit or post holes and three ditches. Five features contained pottery dated 1000BC - 200BC. The features represent a small area of Bronze Age/Iron Age activity on the western side of the site, close to the eastern shore of the Heybridge Creek. <1> October 2006. Archaeological excavation. Several features containing pottery of Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age date were recorded. These features comprised a series of five ditches, a possible curvilinear ditch and twenty-eight pits and postholes. Amongst the pits were three that contained cremation burials. <2> <3> <4> Iron Age activity was attested by a double-ditched enclosure, formed by a system of non-continuous linear ditches running across the western portion of the site. An entranceway appeared to have been located to the south-east. Only the eastern edge of the enclosure was revealed within the excavation area; it is thought that the enclosure continued beyond the site to the west. A series of discrete Iron Age pits and postholes were located across the site, predominantly, but not exclusively, within the double-ditched enclosure. There were no apparent spatial relationships between the pits and postholes within the enclosure and no structural configurations could be discerned. A further eight pits and postholes were located in isolated positions outside the double-ditched enclosure. Later in the Iron Age, after the enclosure. ditches had been filled in, Pit F1931 was cut through the southern terminus of Ditch F1911, while a curvilinear ditch (F1226) was cut through the backfill of the inner ditch of the south-east side of the enclosure (F1197). Ditch F 1843 was cut through the entranceway of the double-ditched enclosure. Later still, Cremation Pit F1514 was interred in the backfilled northern terminus of Ditch F1843. A second cremation (C1258) was located in an isolated position outside the enclosure, to the south-west of the entranceway, and is thought to have been interred after the enclosure went out of use. <4>