Lodge Farm, Costessey, Norfolk (Phase 2)

Between the 21st of January and the 1st of March 2019, Oxford Archaeology East carried out archaeological excavations in three areas (Area B, C and E), in the southern part of the Lodge Farm Phase 2 Development Area, Costessey, Norfolk (centred TG 1602 1018). The excavations, covering a total area of c.1.5ha, were targeted on features identified through a combination of cropmarks, geophysical survey and trial trenching, and followed an earlier phase of excavations in the northern part of the development area undertaken by Archaeological Solutions.
The earliest remains recorded related to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age activity. A single pit associated with Early Neolithic pottery was found in Area B, and a Beaker associated pit in Area C. Several tree throw features in Areas B and C also produced Neolithic/Early Bronze Age flintwork whilst an undated cremation burial and a small pennanular ring ditch in Area B may also date to this broad period.
In Area B, evidence for Middle Iron Age settlement was recorded in the form of dispersed pits, some of which were associated with substantial pottery assemblages, and which included several large steep sided features of the kind usually interpreted as grain storage pits. There was no evidence for contemporary activity in the other excavation areas, but a regular rectangular enclosure of Late Iron Age date was exposed in Area C, and was associated with a possible beam slot structure.
Early Roman (1st to 2nd century AD) remains were encountered in all three excavation areas, with a series of rectilinear fields/enclosures in Area B, a rectilinear enclosure in Area C and a series of boundary/trackway ditches in Area E. All of these ditched systems were laid out on broadly north to south/east to west alignments and clearly belong to a much more extensive system of boundaries and enclosures over the wider development area, known from cropmarks and previous excavations. Few of the Early Roman features produced substantial finds assemblage and there were no structures and few discrete features. On this basis, many of the enclosures could relate to agricultural use, although the finds from some of the ditches suggest that there may have been some domestic-type activity in the immediate vicinity of Areas B and C.
There was no evidence for later Roman activity, and the only post-Roman features were a series of charcoal-rich pits found across all three excavation areas. Two of these feature have been radiocarbon dated to the Anglo-Saxon period (the more reliable dating suggesting a Late Saxon date) and they can be compared to analogous features known from other sites in the region which have been interpreted as relating to charcoal production.