NHER 64835 (Monument record) - Middle Bronze Age and undated ditches

August-October 2014. Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation on route of northern Postwick Overflow and Distribution Main pipeline (Area 4).
This section of the pipeline easement exposed a number of ditches and two probable natural features. The majority of these features remain of uncertain date as finds were limited to a small number of mostly undiagnostic worked flints. Samples taken from the fills of the natural features and three ditches also proved to be fairly unproductive, with only sparse charcoal present.
The most interesting of the ditches was a north-west to south-east aligned feature that appeared to turn onto a more north-north-east to south-south-west orientation at its northern end. Although it only produced two worked flints, radiocarbon dating of charcoal from its fill returned a Middle Bronze Age date of 1520-1412 cal BC at 95% probability (SUERC-57095; 3192 +/- 31 BP). Although a date obtained from charcoal such as this is far from ideal, this feature did also produce several fragments of burnt flint, which is often associated with Bronze Age activity. Similar fragments were also recovered from an adjacent natural hollow (interpreted as a periglacial feature or infilled pond). Also potentially open at this time was a probable natural feature approximately 100m to the north that produced several worked flints, including a small assemblage of worked flints including a poorly struck core fragment of possible Bronze Age date.
The Bronze Age ditch was cut but one of three parallel north-east to south-west aligned ditches. Little else can be said about these features other than that they are perpendicular to the modern field boundary and therefore probably of much more recent date (although there are no corresponding boundaries shown on the available 19th-century maps).
There was no evidence for surviving sub-surface remains associated to with a pair of similarly-aligned cropmark recorded approximately 150m to the north of these ditches (which potentially represented traces of features associated the southern boundary of Mousehold Heath - see NHER 51948).
The only other feature exposed was a north-north-west to south-south-east aligned ditch at the southern end of the site.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 4 April 2021.