A 2019 geophysical survey of part of the 8.55‐ha Freston interrupted ditch system (Suffolk), which integrated reconnaissance fluxgate gradiometry with earth resistance meter techniques, produced a fine‐grained geo‐spatial resolution site plan to undertake a pilot‐study research excavation. The features targeted comprised four ditch termini of the enclosure, with the aim being to test the long‐established hypothesis that the monument represented an Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure. Although the geophysical survey successfully located the ditch termini and linear trends indicative of the internal palisade trench, the magnetic data in particular further suggested the presence of numerous pit‐like anomalies both within and outside of the enclosure. The combined survey data also detailed for the first time an approximately 70‐m‐long curvilinear low‐resistance ditch‐like anomaly that appears to precede the interrupted ditch system. The working hypothesis is that this represents a ditch flanking a long barrow, a type of communal Early Neolithic mortuary monument that typically predate the construction of causewayed enclosures across southern Britain. The subsequent 6‐week excavation achieved its aims by recovering diagnostic Early Neolithic (earlier 4th millennium cal BC) material culture from the ditch fills.
Current models view southeast England as where Neolithic lifeways were first introduced to Britain from continental Europe c. 4000 cal BC, however, there has been little work detailing this process in coastal East Anglia. In 2019, work at the Freston causewayed enclosure provided the first view of a major gathering space associated with semi-mobile farming communities of the Early Neolithic in the county of Suffolk and located on a major estuary close to the North Sea. Excavation produced a rich assemblage of worked flint and Mildenhall Ware pottery (potentially for feasting), plus evidence for the consumption of cereals and hazelnuts.
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