The Excavations at Rendlesham 2022 (Week 5)

Featured image: metal detecting on site at Rendlesham © Katie Everard / Suffolk County Council

Work continues at Rendlesham, with volunteers excavating, recording and sampling the archaeological features, as well as a new geophysical survey taking place on a nearby field.

Alan, one of our very experienced metal detector users, came to site to metal detect the spoil heaps and archaeological features; we have been doing this throughout the excavations to make sure no metal objects are missed. This week, Alan found a fragment of the foot plate of a copper-alloy square headed brooch dating to the mid-6th century of a type that is often found in East Anglia.

Fragment of the foot plate of a copper alloy gilt great square headed brooch of an East Anglian type dating to the middle 6th century.

We were also joined by our second group of volunteers from Suffolk Mind, who worked with us to excavate the archaeology and process the finds.

The first half of the rubbish dump 1m squares are now fully excavated. A selection of the remaining unexcavated squares will now be sampled for environmental remains.

two people digging with trowels — a volunteer mentor supervising trowelling (left) and volunteers excavating the rubbish dump (right) © Graham Allen / Suffolk County Council

group of 6 people digging with trowels — a volunteer mentor supervising trowelling (left) and volunteers excavating the rubbish dump (right) © Graham Allen / Suffolk County Council

We now have a large assemblage of animal bone from the rubbish dump and the volunteers have continued to clean, mark, label and bag these bones in preparation for specialist analysis.

A tiny red bead was also recovered.

red bead on table with cm scale — small red bead (left) and volunteers washing animal bone (right) © Graham Allen / Suffolk County Council

group of people finds washing — small red bead (left) and volunteers washing animal bone (right) © Graham Allen / Suffolk County Council

The excavation of the foundation trenches and post holes of the large timber hall is progressing well. Most of the post holes have now been half sectioned and recorded. The soil in the second half of the post holes will next be removed for environmental samples and to retrieve any other objects.

two people excavating post holes — Volunteers excavating post holes (left) and filling in context sheets to record their excavated postholes. © Graham Allen / Suffolk County Council

two people looking at paperwork — Volunteers excavating post holes (left) and filling in context sheets to record their excavated postholes. © Graham Allen / Suffolk County Council

In a field nearby, a geophysical survey has started with volunteers from the Suffolk Archaeological Field Group. This field has not previously been surveyed and is on the edge of the core area of 5th-8th century settlement.

two people in field with GPS — Volunteers from the Suffolk Archaeological Field Group setting out the grid and using the magnetometer

two people with magnetometer equipment — Volunteers from the Suffolk Archaeological Field Group setting out the grid and using the magnetometer

Keep an eye out next week for more updates on our blog as the excavation progresses.

Find out more

Read about the Rendlesham Revealed project

Explore last year’s community fieldwork discoveries

Learn about the previous archaeological investigations since 2008

The volunteer spaces for this season are fully booked, however If you are interested in volunteering for the next season of fieldwork, you can join our e-newsletter mailing list to receive updates.

This fieldwork is part of the community archaeology project Rendlesham Revealed: Anglo-Saxon Life in South-East Suffolk, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We are very grateful to our many local and national partners who have made this project possible, and for the support of our volunteers and of the landowners and farmers who work and manage this historic landscape.

If you want to get involved with the Rendlesham Revealed project and future fieldwork, you can sign up to our e-newsletter for updates.