Multi-period remains on land at Brightlingsea Quarry, Moverons Lane (EHER 80471)

The results from this excavation support the conclusions and interpretations formed in the previous phase of work, and showed a continuation of the previously uncovered mid-Roman trackway and the Middle Bronze Age field system. Additionally, and most prominently, this excavation showed a continuation of the Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon settlement in the form of a Grubenhaus with an associated pit complex.

December 2017. Archaeological excavation. The results from this excavation support the conclusions and interpretations formed in the previous phase of work, and showed a continuation of the previously uncovered mid-Roman trackway and the Middle Bronze Age field system. Additionally, and most prominently, this excavation showed a continuation of the Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon settlement in the form of a Grubenhaus with an associated pit complex. The investigated tree throws produced three worked flint fragments, one of which was a blade probably datable to the Early Neolithic period, and this evidence suggests a possible phase of Late Neolithic human-enacted deforestation. Two Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age pits were the only tangible features which could be dated to this period on the basis of pottery produced by the fills. The Middle Bronze Age field system observed to the East continues into this excavation area. One ditch attributed to this field system by the earlier excavation was found to yield fragments of lava quern stone, a material first imported from the Rhineland in the Roman period. This material, if not intrusive, suggests a much later date for the ditch. Two ditches to the South of the site, based on their location and alignment, are unquestionably a continuation of the mid-Roman trackway from the previous phase of excavation and serve to show that the trackway continued Westwards at least as far as this area. This trackway probably led to Roman settlements elsewhere on the ridge and, in particular, seems to line up with the location of a Roman villa exposed by trenching during the First World War about a mile to the west (EHER 2116). A Grubenhaus and three pits in the centre of the site form a continuation of the extensive Anglo-Saxon settlement observed in the previous phase of work and is characteristically consistent. Its size and rectangular shape is within the parameters of the known Grubenhäuser and there is also a complex of pits in close proximity. Like the majority of Grubenhäuser found at Brightlingsea, it is a six-post derivative structure, and contained unfired clay and loom weight fragments within its fill, though in much greater quantity. <1>