First Inroads: Earlier Bronze Age Activity On The Suffolk Claylands

Abstract

Recent large-scale excavations on the Eye Airfield Industrial Estate, Yaxley, Suffolk (centred TM 1255 7461; Fig. 1) have revealed important evidence for the occupation and clearance of Suffolk’s clayland interior during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The investigations revealed traces of a burnt mound and pond, a waterhole, and a scatter of small pits and post-holes. Supported by a series of radiocarbon dates, the results are significant in demonstrating the early utilisation of the county’s heavier soils, with the environmental evidence indicating that tracts of landscape were already cleared of woodland during the early second millennium BC. Challenging conventional assumptions about Suffolk’s clayland interfluves, the results give cause to think anew about the nature of prehistoric activity beyond the lighter soils of the region’s river valleys.