Micromorphological analysis

Micromorphology samples were taken from two sunken featured buildings, a large pit, and a spread of "dark earth" on the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Bloodmoor Hill, Carlton Colville, Suffolk. Thin section analysis revealed that the "dark earth" had been developed through the intentional addition of organic matter, but that it contained none of the anthropogenic inclusions, such as bones, pottery, or daub, that would indicate that it had been a midden area. The basal deposits of the SFBs, which had seemed crust-like and compacted in the field, were not floor deposits but clay-iron bands formed by post-depositional clay illuviation. The upper fills of the SFBs and the fill of the large pit were homogenous, with elevated organic content and abundant re-working by soil fauna, but did not contain any evidence for the original functions of the features. The lack of floor layers and the homogeneity of the fills of these and other SFBs excavated in England suggests that they had contained wooden floor boards, but that these timbers had been removed and the pits rapidly refilled with surface soils (A horizon) from the settlement when the structures were abandoned.