NHER 61026 (Monument record) - Possible burnt features of unknown date

December 2014. Watching Brief. Field 4.
Installation of a 2.9km-long pipeline was monitored.
Three features were recorded following topsoil stripping of the easement in Field 4. The first feature was initially believed to be a large, elongated pit but following inspection has been interpreted as the terminus of a palaeochannel. The channel was filled with a black gravelly sand containing frequent burnt flint fragments. An environmental sample from the fill produced extremely little organic content, with only a moderate amount of charcoal/charred wood fragments, a few splinters of heat shattered stone, and one indeterminate charred root stem. However, a large quantity of burnt stone was retained during the sorting process for further analysis. The excavator has suggested that the burnt stone within this feature could be the remnants of a prehistoric burnt mound used for cooking or laundering, dying and fulling processes.
Two small, shallow, irregular features with identical fills were recorded to the east of the channel. These were initially thought to be pits, but the excavator has suggested that the small pits and the larger features described above could be remnants of a single large feature which was gradually truncated.
These features were located immediately to the west of a sinuous ditch visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs (NHER 38256). The relationship between these features and the cropmark remains uncertain.
See report (S1) for further information.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.280).
H. Hamilton (HES), 30 June 2015. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 19 May 2019.