Integrating geophysical survey and excavation at the Freston Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure, Suffolk (UK)

Abstract

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.

The Freston Causewayed Enclosure

“…In 2019 a small team undertook the first research excavation at Freston. The fieldwork began with a geophysical survey of the southeast quadrant, the results of which are published elsewhere (Schofield et al 2021). Here we focused on the excavation of a 10 × 35m trench that, with the guidance of the geophysical survey, was established over two sets of ditch termini, encompassing an area both directly within and outside of the enclosure (Fig.…”