Central Suffolk was previously assumed to have been virtually uninhabited before the Roman conquest, due to its thick tree cover and clay soils. Recent work is beginning to contradict this, with increased evidence for Late Iron Age and early Roman occupation. This volume reports on excavations on a residential development site at Cedars Park, on the outskirts of Stowmarket, between 1999 and 2011. Trial-trenching and larger-scale excavations revealed a Late Iron Age settlement, within an agricultural landscape, which survived as a Romano-British farmstead until the mid-fourth century a.d. The archaeological sequence implies considerable continuity from the pre-conquest period into the Roman occupation, in common with many other parts of East Anglia.

Ch. 2 describes results from the four main phases of occupation: Late Iron Age, early, middle and late Romano-British (Phases 1–4). Specialist reports (ch. 3) emphasise the ordinariness of this rural settlement, while describing infrequent extraordinary finds. The numismatic report notes that coins were scarce; there were no pre- or post-Roman coins, and those found were largely later Roman issues. This accords with the understanding that a monetary economy did not become fully established in Britain until the later Roman period, particularly at rural sites. Iron-working, weaving, antler-working and a possible kiln and ceramic manufacture provide evidence for small-scale industrial production and processing. An abundance of locally-manufactured Stowmarket-type jars adds to the impression of self-sufficiency. Nonetheless, ceramics from West Stow, Colchester and the Lower Nene Valley demonstrate wider regional trade connections. A single sherd of Lyon ware from a post-hole is considered extremely rare in East Anglia, while a Dressel 1-Pascual 1 Catalan wine amphora handle shows that uncommon first-century a.d. imports occasionally reached farming communities. The authors highlight the difficulties of basing chronologies on slow-changing local coarse wares, compounded by a minimal assemblage of samian and other imports.

Ch. 4 sets Cedars Park in its wider context and provides a coherent synthesis and discussion of the results. The report explores the religious and funerary practices of the inhabitants. Human skeletal remains included two adults, seven infants and two possible Late Iron Age cremation pyres. Special animal deposits were identified, including the deliberate placement of antlers and horse skulls in pits. This practice appears to extend from the Late Iron Age well into the Romano-British period at Cedars Park. The possible association of a crouched human inhumation with a headless equine burial, and the positioning of horse skulls elsewhere on site, is indicative of the symbolic, as well as practical, value of these animals.

This report joins a growing body of evidence for strong continuity in this area during the conquest and early occupation. Alongside the persistence of indigenous funerary and ritual practices, no hiatus in occupation or major reorganisation between phases was recorded. New timber roundhouses were constructed at Cedars Park in the early Romano-British period. The excavators found few obvious differences between buildings of Phases 1 and 2. Instead, a ‘significant shift’ in the dominant building plan occurred between Phases 2 and 3 (mid-second to mid-third century). Flint rubble structures and two bath-houses with painted wall-plaster were constructed in Phase 3. The authors cite the contemporary rectangular and circular building forms and the relatively late adoption of flint for construction to explore cultural preferences and question the doctrine of Romanisation. Many of the main buildings were demolished or abandoned in the late third to early fourth century, with no evidence for a later Anglo-Saxon presence.

So, were the inhabitants of rural Suffolk little touched by the influences of the outside world? Did they selectively appropriate certain goods and ideas? This report raises several frequently-noted issues. We need to develop better chronologies which are not dependent on ceramic typologies. Familiar caveats are also raised regarding trial-trenching, partial stripping and area excavation between development zones, which potentially risk missing parts of the widespread settlement. I would have liked a little further interrogation of the oft-repeated idea that East Anglia was a cultural backwater in this period, and interpretation of the site within a framework of regional difference and strategic engagement with the wider Roman Empire. Nevertheless, this report is a useful addition to the East Anglian Archaeology series. As with most EAA volumes, it is reassuringly consistent in layout and can be either easily interrogated for particular interests or engaged with as a whole.