#ThrowbackThursday Lufkins Farm

This #ThrowbackThursday we remember our 2016-17 excavations at Lufkins Farm on Great Bentley Road in Frating

Our work here took place in advance of construction on site, and a previous evaluation on the site in 2007 produced features from the Neolithic to Roman period, meaning we knew there was likely more to find! Additionally, adjacent cropmarks included a ring-ditch and a double-ditched trackway that was thought to overlap the excavation area

The evaluation and excavation unveiled a total of 51 prehistoric features – with some dating all the way back to the Early Neolithic! Most of these features included pottery sherds and/or pieces of worked flint, which represent a range of daily activities including cooking and flint-working. This might also suggest repeated and persistent occupation of the site throughout the Neolithic period, and possibly into the Bronze Age and Iron Age

There is also evidence of Roman activity on the site, from the 1st to 2nd century, possibly into the 3rd century. This includes ditches that fashion the land into a series of fields and paddocks, suggesting a largely agricultural landscape, possibly a small farmstead

For more information, check out CAT Report 1303 on our reports website at: cat.essex.ac.uk