Multiperiod linear features, South of Ardleigh (EHER 82099)

Excavations revealed a Bronze Age ditch also visible as cropmarks. It was cut at one point by a Roman ditch. Also revealed was an undated post hole which may have been part of a feature which extended beyond the excavated area.

Excavation of Areas 8 20 and 21 1979-1980 Excavation of the substantial ditch of the enclosure in Areas 8, 20 and 21 proved it to be a feature broadly contemporary with the later Bronze Age cemetery. The relationship of the enclosure, which was furnished with several entrances, to the trackway system supports the hypothesis that this system has its origins in the later Bronze Age. <1> These three areas contained elements of a linear feature which could be traced, in the excavated trenches and as a cropmark (C2), running roughly south-west/north-east for a distance of approximately 180m. At the north-east end, the cropmark suggests the ditch turns though about 90° to run for about 20m north-west, although the evidence is equivocal. Excavations revealed the ditch which was between 3-4m wide and up to 1.8m deep, broadly of U profile. The ditch was Bronze Age and came to a clear butt end in area 21 probably from a Roman period recut. Cropmark evidence indicates that ditch (C2) was continuous between Area 21 and Area 20 about 35m to the north-east . In Area 20 the line of ditch C2 includes a 3 .5m wide 'entrance' marked by roughly squared off butt ends. Area 20 also contained a small sub-circular steep-sided feature interpreted as a post-hole. This feature extended beyond the edge of the excavated segment. <2>