Late Bronze Age settlement dating back 3,000 years uncovered amid road work: Important discovery

An ancient Bronze Age settlement was recently uncovered by archaeologists in the United Kingdom while a highway was being built.The Suffolk City Council described the site as a “Late Bronze Age settlement and cremation cemetery” that dates back 3,000 years; they shared the information in a press release dated mid-April.In Britain, the Bronze Age lasted from 2500 B.C.

to roughly 800 B.C.The excavation took place on the construction site of Europa Way.The highway was built to link roads in northwest Ipswich, a port town in Suffolk.“Intensive Late Bronze Age activity at Europa Way was located on the glacial outwash gravels, which outcrop on the lower slopes of the northern side of the valley of the River Gipping,” the city council said in a statement. “There is a rich record of prehistoric land use on the lighter soils of the terrace and outwash gravels, which flank the River Gipping’s course upstream of Ipswich.”Archaeologists uncovered 18 burials dating back to 1200 B.C., along with remains of various structures and a host of ancient artifacts.“The postholes of two roundhouses, numerous four and six-post structures, and two ring-gullies were found at the site near Bramford and Sproughton, along with multiple pottery finds,” the city council’s statement read.“This evidence indicates a settlement with a mixed agricultural economy including cereal production, and breeding and raising cattle.”Archaeologists also found cremation urns, a copper-alloy pin, fragmented fired clay weights and a clay spindle whorl, along with a “rare example of a flint quern, used for hand-grinding grain into flour.”Experts from Cotswold Archaeology, Oxford Archaeology and Suffolk County Council’s Archaeological Service all participated in the excavation, with Oxford Archaeology taking the lead on the fieldwork.In a statement, Oxford Archaeology senior project manager Chris Thatcher said that the discovery was important in understanding “prehistoric activit...