Prehistoric and Roman features and pottery at Primrose Lane, Harwich (EHER 80558)

Excavations uncovered diches dated to the Prehistoric, possibly Early or Middle Bronze Age and Romano-British period. The ditches lay 126 m apart, any interpretation of their association with one another is limited, as is an understanding of their function. One ditch also contained a single sherd of Roman pottery within a secondary fill, possibly indicating that the ditch had partially silted up by the Romano-British period. Such an assemblage is possibly indicative of a dumped deposit, but the lack of settlement features, notably no postholes were found during the evaluation, suggests the material was dumped within an agricultural or drainage ditch.

Trial trenching, 2022 Features that appear to predate the medieval period are scares on this site however, prehistoric, possibly Early/Middle Bronze Age pottery was recovered from pit/ditch terminus 3607 and ditch 3111. The pottery recovered is similar to that found among the urns from Ardleigh, around 13km to the west, but further assessment was limited as only body sherds were recovered. As the ditches lay 126 m apart, any interpretation of their association with one another is limited, as is an understanding of their function. Ditch 3111 also contained a single sherd of Roman pottery within a secondary fill, possibly indicating that the ditch had partially silted up by the Romano-British period. This ditch appeared to continue through trenches 20 and 30 where Roman pottery was also recovered with the majority of the assemblage (85 sherds, 594g) retrieved from ditch 2004. Such an assemblage is possibly indicative of a dumped deposit, but the lack of settlement features, notably no postholes were found during the evaluation, suggests the material was dumped within an agricultural or drainage ditch. <1>