Late Bronze Age Remains at Stutton Close, Stutton, Suffolk

Between 15th April – 4th May 2020 Oxford Archaeology East carried out an excavation on land to the west of Stutton Close, Stutton, Suffolk, ahead of a proposed residential development. A total of 2,979m2 was excavated in two excavation areas within a former orchard.
Exposed within the excavation areas was a single Middle Bronze Age pit (Area B) and a discrete area of Late Bronze Age settlement (Area A), including at least one post-built structure consisting of six post holes and a cluster of 20 pits. The pits produced a varied assemblage of occupation debris, including a large quantity of Late Bronze Age pottery, five fragmentary fired clay loom weights, two spindle whorls, a rare fragment of flint quern and a fragment of sandstone saddle quern, with the majority deriving from four pits close to the structure (Pit Group 107). One of the pits close to the structure was radiocarbon dated to 917-814 cal. BC.
A regionally significant assemblage of Late Bronze Age briquetage (115 fragments, 1791g) was recovered from six pits, with diagnostic pieces including bar fragments, pedestal fragments and pedestal terminals. The vast majority of the briquetage came from a single pit (EV43) in the centre of Area A, which was radiocarbon dated to 983-830 cal. BC. The same pit contained the largest assemblage of Late Bronze Age pottery from a single feature.
A post-medieval boundary ditch was also revealed along the western and southern edges of the investigation area.