Engaging with local communities to explore the true extent and wealth of their local archaeology in the Fen Edge & River Valleys.
Delivery Lead Organisation: Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service (SCCAS)
To engage with local communities to explore the true extent and wealth of their local archaeology in the Fen Edge & River Valleys.
To reveal how past communities used and lived within these landscapes, and train volunteers to use modern Geophysics equipment to explore, understand and record hidden heritage.
This project delivered volunteer training in non-intrusive archaeological survey techniques, including geophysical survey and fieldwalking, and associated finds identification and processing.
The results of this training revealed the extent and condition of buried archaeology at key sites in the project area focusing on the Lark Valley.
This project also explored under-investigated sites and the peripheries of known sites to stitch this historical landscape together, revealing how the river and its surrounding landscape were used through time.
These activities enabled the local community to access and interpret their newly discovered heritage and contribute to the constantly evolving story of Prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon communities in the river valleys. Nationally important archaeology in this area includes the known site of West Stow Anglo-Saxon village, which has earlier Iron Age settlement activity; the Anglo-Saxon cremation cemetery at Lackford, where this community was possibly buried; Icklingham, a focus of Roman activity; and the mysterious Black Ditches at Cavenham.
