Anglo-Saxon grubenhaus, Stifford Clays (EHER 5284)

Small Saxon sunken featured building excavated with a Saxon cemetery, comprising at least 9 inhumations and a single cremation. A Group 6 shield boss, spearheads, knives, buckles, keys and a whorl accompanied the burials

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. Small Saxon sunken featured building. <1> It is part of a multiperiod site detailed EHER 5282 - 5284. See EHER 5282 for context of discoveries made here during cutting of a side road. The final phase of the site consisted of a set of deep post holes and gully, cut into one of the late iron age ditches on the hill top. The features formed the shape of a rectangular building around 6 x 6m, with a large number of internal posts, bounded to the east by a wall in a shallow slot or alternatively equipped with a drainage gully. The ground plan is not necessarily complete and the structure may merely be part of a long house. Early-middle grass tempered sherds in the gully suggested that the hut was the final phase of occupation before agriculture took over. <2> <3> Site Assessment = Eastern half of site remains. In future aerial photographs may reveal the rest. <2> This multi-period site has only been partly destroyed by road construction. It may be possible to determine the full extent of the settlement to the east by fieldwalking. <3> Information from NRHE A rectangular post-built structure of Saxon date and a small pagan Saxon cemetery were excavated. Three gullies probably represent ploughed-out Saxon barrows. One cremation was found. And at least 9 inhumations. Grave goods were almost all of iron, comprising several knives, two spearheads and a Group 6 shield boss. <4> Additional references <5> - <8>