ARCHAEOLOGISTS preparing the ground for a new building at an Anglo-Saxon village have discovered the remains of three pits dating back 1,500 years.

The unexpected find, at the site in West Stow, near Bury St Edmunds, was made during preparation work for a new timber construction that will be home to heritage displays and study facilities when it opens in the summer.

It is now hoped that a mysterious black substance in the pits will help answer age-old questions about their purpose, and give a better understanding of Anglo-Saxon life.

“The process of revealing West Stow's Anglo Saxon past is fascinating,” said Alan Baxter, heritages services manager at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, which owns the site.

“Some of the tools are the same ones used by Stanley West, when the original excavations were done in the 1960s. And it is tantalising to see these pits appear only to fade away again. However the secrets that they yield will enhance our understanding of Anglo-Saxon life, and give visitors to the village an in-depth experience of how it would have felt to live in the original thriving, agrarian community.”

Although building work - which will proceed once the archaeologists leave the site on December 31 - will destroy the pits, the find will be fully documented for academic use.

Lynsey Alexander, the borough council's cabinet member for culture and sport, said: “It is a credit to the academic rigour of the archaeological and Heritage Services that the nature of these finds is recognised and their value revealed. Like many other visitors, I am intrigued to know what the black stuff is and what it did.”