An ancient Bronze Age settlement was recently uncovered by archaeologists in the United Kingdom while a highway was being built.

The Suffolk City Council recently announced the discovery of a historic site dating back 3,000 years, describing it as a “Late Bronze Age settlement and cremation cemetery” in a press release issued in mid-April.

In Britain, the Bronze Age lasted from 2500 B.C. to roughly 800 B.C.

The excavation took place on the construction site of Europa Way.

The highway was built to link roads in northwest Ipswich, a port town in Suffolk.

According to the council’s statement, the Europa Way location showed signs of significant Late Bronze Age activity on the glacial outwash gravels situated on the lower slopes of the northern side of the River Gipping valley.

The statement also mentioned a rich history of prehistoric land use in the area, particularly on the terrace and outwash gravels along the course of the River Gipping upstream of Ipswich.

Archaeologists uncovered 18 burials dating back to 1200 B.C., along with remains of various structures and a host of ancient artifacts.

“The postholes of two roundhouses, numerous four and six-post structures, and two ring-gullies were found at the site near Bramford and Sproughton, along with multiple pottery finds,” the city council’s statement read.

“This evidence indicates a settlement with a mixed agricultural economy including cereal production, and breeding and raising cattle.”

Archaeologists also found cremation urns, a copper-alloy pin, fragmented fired clay weights and a clay spindle whorl, along with a “rare example of a flint quern, used for hand-grinding grain into flour.”

Experts from Cotswold Archaeology, Oxford Archaeology and Suffolk County Council’s Archaeological Service all participated in the excavation, with Oxford Archaeology taking the lead on the fieldwork.

In a statement, Oxford Archaeology senior project manager Chris Thatcher said that the discovery was important in understanding “prehistoric activity along this stretch of the Gipping valley.”

“Some aspects of the settlement remains are of considerable significance in the wider regional context, especially the substantial pottery finds, the cremation cemetery, and the way that the agricultural landscape was organized,” the archaeologist said.

Thatcher added that a distinctive feature of the cremation cemetery was “how close it was to the buildings and daily life.”

“[T]he inhabitants of the settlement were likely buried close by,” he also said. 

“This is part of an emerging pattern of Late Bronze Age burial activity, and appears to mark a shift from the Middle Bronze Age preference for major cemeteries, typically within extensive field systems, or the deceased being interred at earlier-established ancestral monuments.”

The latest announcement comes on the heels of other discoveries at the site, ranging from millennia-old Neolithic pottery to Iron Age currency and medieval artifacts.

In a statement, Suffolk County Council cabinet member Philip Faircloth-Mutton hailed the discovery as showing Suffolk’s “unique history, and add[ing] another layer to our understanding of what life was like for previous generations in our part of the world.”

“This is why it is important that the council’s Archaeological Service is here to help record and preserve our past,” Faircloth-Mutton said. 

“As important and interesting as finds are today, who knows how significant this information might be in generations to come.”