ARCHAEOLOGISTS have meticulously built up a picture of ancient settlements in an isolated location near Aldeburgh. Their work follows two digs during which they discovered evidence of life in the Anglo-Saxon period at Barber's Point, which is on the banks of the River Alde opposite Iken. The digs were carried out in 2004 and 2006 by up to 50 volunteers with the help of the county council's archaeological service. The Local History Initiative gave £25,000 towards the work which was commissioned by the Aldeburgh and District Local History Society.
Richard Newman, a founder member of the society, had a long-held ambition to dig at Barber's Point and he is delighted with the success of the project. “It has been a fascinating time and a lot of people have had a lot of fun, enjoyed a taste of archaeology and developed a greater understanding of what was going on in these parts,” he said. “When we started we thought we would just find a fairly humble Roman site, possibly linked to salt making of which there are a number of sites on the River Alde. But by the second session it became obvious that it was considerably more.”
Read the rest of this article...
