Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pits and postholes at land North of 63 Rectory Road, Stisted (EHER 80352)

Trial trenching revealed one undated and two Bronze Age pits. Open area excavation further investigated this area and uncovered 20 features, consisting of eight pits, three pits/ditches, five postholes, two stake holes and two natural features. Nine features produced Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery and the features likely all belong to the same phase of settlement activity in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age.

February 2021. Trial trenching. Three small, round, bowl-like pits were found to the North of the site in Trench 1 and are probably Bronze Age. Two of the pits contained a quantity of heat-altered (burnt) stone along with some probable Bronze Age pottery and fired clay. The third pit is undated. <1> May 2021. Archaeological excavation. Open area excavation investigated the area around Trench 1 and uncovered 20 features, consisting of eight pits, three pits/ditches, five postholes, two stakeholes and two natural features. Nine features produced Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery with another two undated pits producing large quantities of heat-altered (burnt) stone, which is usually associated with prehistoric activity and likely of the same date as the dated features. Perhaps the most significant of these prehistoric features were a group of postholes or stakeholes which were located in the Southern half of the excavation area. While the majority of these features produced no dating evidence, pottery dating to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age was recovered from three postholes, and it is likely that all of these features date to this period. The presence of baked clay and daub from the same three postholes as the pottery suggest at least one posted structure stood here during this period. The features and finds are indicative of some form of settlement activity on the development site in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. <2>