Iron Age and Roman remains at Parcel A, land west of Isabel Drive, Elsenham (EHER 81126)

Iron Age and Roman remains were limited to a series of trackways and pits, and the paucity of finds suggests that they were located some distance from any settlement. A trackway that had been redefined multiple times appeared to broadly head towards the middle to late Iron Age settlement identified during excavations at Parcel B, c.400m to the south-west.

July to November 2021. Excavation. The Iron Age and the Roman remains were primarily trackways but also included five pits near the trackways in the southern area, and a boundary ditch. Very little pottery and animal bone was recovered from any of these features, suggesting that the nearest contemporary settlement was located at some distance. Ditches (L2) in the northern excavation area were spaced c.2m apart and may represent a narrow trackway, although they began to diverge as they approached the southern limit of the area. The western ditch was the larger of the two, measuring 1.5m wide and 0.4m deep; the eastern ditch was only 0.7m wide and 0.25m deep. However, considering the ditches’ location alongside middle Bronze Age cremations L1, it is possible that they share a similar date, and that the single sherd of early to middle Iron Age pottery was intrusive. Several broadly parallel ditches (L3) crossed the southern excavation area from northeast to south-west, forming a long-lived trackway that was redefined at least twice. These trackways were 5–10m wide and were defined by ditches that differed significantly in size, measuring 0.3–1.8m wide and 0.1–0.4m deep. Sherds of both Iron Age and Roman pottery were recovered from them. Two heavily truncated pairs of parallel ditches (L7), only short lengths of which survived, may have formed further trackways, also c.10m wide and almost perpendicular to L3. Another ditch on the same alignment (G19) terminated at the eastern side of trackway G7 (L3), and is likely to represent a field boundary. The five pits (L4) near trackway L3 were mostly 0.8–1.1m wide and 0.1–0.2m deep, but pit G14 was 2.3m long, 0.65m wide and 0.4m deep. This and G123 were excavated during the evaluation and both produced sherds of late Iron Age pottery see EHCR: 48393 (TVAS 2013). <1>