Prehistoric Norfolk
Encyclopedia
This prehistory of the County of Norfolk
, England
is broken into specific time periods.
Norfolk has a very rich prehistoric past, from the Palaeolithic era 950,000 years ago, to end of the Iron Age
2000 years ago. Indeed, Norfolk has the earliest evidence of human occupation of what is now Britain, and some of the country's best-preserved archaeological sites.
During the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
periods the coast of Norfolk would have been 60–70 km further to the north than today, with much of the North Sea
a wide, open plain. The size of the habitable land would have varied through the different glacial and interglacial
periods up until the end of the Anglian Stage, as would have the climate
, flora
and fauna
, and the general landscape of Norfolk. The Anglian glaciation was the 3rd from last glacial stage and occurred between 400,000 and 500,000 years ago. This stage was the last time the ice sheets reached East Anglia
and it resulted in the deposits known as the Corton Formation.
The majority of the evidence for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic occupation in East Anglia survives as redeposited flakes and tools recovered from river gravel deposits. These river gravels were laid by the ancestral Thames
and Bytham River
systems. Large quantities of artefacts were identified from gravel quarries during the 19th and early 20th century due to the increased demand for gravel in the construction industry and the hand sorting of this gravel.
Bones and flint tools found in coastal deposits near Happisburgh
. The artefacts were in situ in riverine deposits of the Cromer Forest Bed
series. Experts previously thought the earliest humans arrived 700,000 years ago.
The flint assemblage consists of;
The importance of the flint assemblage of Happisburgh is not just to the understanding the prehistory of Norfolk, but to the understanding of prehistoric Europe. This is due to the first mentioned hand axe
in the assemblage. The hand axe is an ovate handaxe made from black flint
with pale grey coarse-grained inclusions, one face carries two small areas of pebble cortex
, and is in near perfect condition. This handaxe is believed to be the earliest tool yet found in Europe http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/000442.html; it was probably used as a knife for cutting up carcasses http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.1%20:%20A.
The environmental conditions of Happisburgh, shown through pollen analysis
, suggests a picture of a temperate
woodland with areas of fen carr and aquatic plant
s growing in a maritime
environment of tidal sediments. With evidence showing a preponderance of pine
and alder
, with oak
, elm
and hornbeam
also present; members of the galingale
, buttercup and nettle
families point to fen
or reedswamp environments, while water-starwort
, water lilies
and bulrush
es are among the aquatic plants present.
Other Lower Palaeolithic sites in Norfolk include:
There is little evidence of human occupation during the subsequent Ipswichian Stage between around 180,000 and 70,000 years ago, lead.
Well-preserved in-situ Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites are exceedingly rare in Europe and very unusual within a British context.
In-situ mammoth remains and associated Mousterian
stone tools and debitage
. The artefactual, faunal and environmental evidence were sealed, in-situ, within a Middle Devensian palaeochannel with a dark organic fill.
44 pristine Mousterian flint handaxes, the remains of at least nine Mammuthus primigenius, (woolly mammoths).
The assemblage.
Some 590 worked flint artefacts consisting of number of handaxes (pointed, subcordiform, cordiform, ovate and bout coupé forms), three cores and a number of retouched, utilised and waste flakes were individually recorded with over 1,000 pieces of microdebitage
recovered from the 0.50 m2 spit units. A number of the handaxes and flakes were found in direct association with bones and/or tusks. The artefacts are generally fresh and relatively sharp with minimal abrasion or post-depositional edge damage. Typologically the assemblage falls within the Mousterian of Acheulean
Tradition (MTA) facies of the Middle Palaeolithic http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3892.
The Fauna, flora and environmental evidence.
In total, some 2,079 bones, tusks, antlers and teeth of Mammuthus primigenius (mammoth), Coelodonta antiquitatis(woolly rhinoceros), Rangifer tarandus (reindeer), Equus ferus (horse), Bison priscus (bison), Canis lupus (wolf), Vulpes vulpes or Alopex lagopus (red or Arctic fox) and Ursus arctos (brown bear) were individually recorded and a further 25,000 bone, tooth and tusk fragments recovered. Feces
of scavengers (possibly the spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta) were also recovered from the organic sediments. No articulated skeletons were found. The bone varied in condition with some bones extensively weathered and others exhibiting traces of gnawing by predator-scavengers. Bone fractures characteristic of marrow extraction by hominids have been identified on the some of the reindeer and horse bones recovered from the deposit. The faunal remains recovered from the palaeochannel are typical of the Pin Hole Mammal Assemblage Zone of the Middle Devensian. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3892
Through archaeo-environmental analysis, 150 species of insect have been identified. These indicate the presence of standing water, marsh, bare sand and grass. Dung
and carcass beetles add to the picture of giant rotting mammals being scavenged by hyenas and Neanderthals http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3892. The presence of sub-Arctic plants, insects and snails at this site indicates that the Neanderthals of this time lived in a climate like that of modern Scandinavia.http://www.iceage.bham.ac.uk/IA%20human.htm
Interpretation
The mammoths appear to have been butchered but it is unclear whether these beasts were hunted, or their meat simply scavenged from corpses. The site is internationally important due to the rarity of such sites being preserved.
Other sites
There is little evidence from this period. Other sites within modern Norfolk include:
Although material has been recovered from across the region dating to this period, there have been very few large scale excavations, particularly in recent years. The majority of material identified from East Anglia consists of stray artefacts with only a few known stratified
sites. Norfolk also lacks the cave sites which have proved to be so important for the preservation of sites in other areas e.g. Kent's Cavern
, Torbay
, Devon
; Creswell Crags
, Derbyshire
; Gough's Cave
, Cheddar Gorge, Somerset
. The Earlier Upper Palaeolithic is very poorly represented across the whole region although there is somewhat more known from the Later Upper Palaeolithic http://www.eaareports.demon.co.uk/Assessment%20Palaeo-Meso.pdf#search='upper%20palaeolithic%20norfolk'.
Early Upper Palaeolithic
Flint leaf points reported at Heacham
and Feltwell
but it is not certain that they are not products of the later, Neolithic
industries which also included leaf points.
List of sites
Healy F., 1996 The Fenland Project No. 11: The Wissey Embayment: evidence for pre-Iron Age
occupation accumulated prior to the Fenland Project, E. Anglian Archaeol. 78, 53
J J Wymer and P A Robins 1994 A long blade flint industry beneath boreal peat at Titchwell, Norfolk Norfolk Archaeology, Vol XLII, part 1
In general this period is still poorly understood in Norfolk.
corresponds with the beginning of the Mesolithic
age in most of Europe around 10,000 years ago. Temperatures rose, probably to levels similar to those today, and forests expanded further. By 8,500 years ago, the rising sea levels caused by the melting glaciers cut Britain off from continental Europe for the last time. The warmer climate changed the Arctic environment to one of pine, birch and alder forest; this less open landscape was less conducive to the large herds of reindeer and horse that had previously sustained humans. Those animals were replaced in people's diets by less social animals such as elk, red deer and aurochs which would have required different hunting techniques in order to be effectively exploited. Tools changed to incorporate barbs which could snag the flesh of a hunted animal, making it harder for it to escape alive. Tiny microliths were developed for hafting onto harpoons and spears. Woodworking tools such as adzes appear in the archaeological record
, although some flint blade types remained similar to their Palaeolithic predecessors. The dog was domesticated because of its benefits during hunting (see Star Carr
) and the wetland environments created by the warmer weather would have been a rich source of fish and game. It is likely that these environmental changes were accompanied by social changes with the groups that inhabited Britain at this time. Evidence from other parts of Britain suggests that during this period the people were becoming more settled rather than solely nomadic see Howichhttp://www.ncl.ac.uk/howick/main/ on the Northumbrian coast, Dunbar
in East Lothian http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba69/news, although there is no evidence found in Norfolk to date.
Sites
Due to the coast being much further out than the present coast line and the barbed antler point found in the North Sea
suggests there are many more Early Mesolithic sites under the North Sea off the Norfolk coast.
Other inland sites
The Breckland
district seems to have been attractive to hunter-gatherers during the Late Mesolithic (c. 6000-4000 BC). This may be due to its proximity to the fen-edge and salt marshes, which were rich in wildfowl, and eel
s. The lighter soils of Breckland, lighter than on the claylands to the north, would have resulted in the wildwoods being less dense thus enabling easier hunting of deer and other species. Two recent excavations in different parts of Thetford are:
Microliths have frequently been found in the Brecks, including along the Little Ouse Valley, and around the edges of the meres
(small lakes).
The heavier boulder clay
of the Norfolk till plain has a site that has produced more flint tranchet axes than any other in East Anglia
Wymer, J.J. & Robins, P.A.. 1995. A Mesolithic Site at Great Melton IN Norfolk Archaeology. Vol. XLII, pp 125–147. Vol. XLII, p. 125ff.
.
Norfolk has revealed important information concerning this period in British history.
Neolithic communities seem to have preferred Norfolk's light soils and well-drained river valley tracts, rather than the heavily wooded central claylands, although these were probably occupied to some extent and also exploited for hunting and foraging. Excavation results indicate that the woodland was dominated by oak and pine, see Broome Heath and Colney
. The fertile Rich Loam
region of north and east Norfolk, with its loess
-rich soils, may have been especially congenial, and the number of possible monuments here is striking.
Neolithic settlements
Duncan Garrow, Emma Beadsmoore & Mark Knight. 2005. Pit Clusters and the Temporality of Occupation: an Earlier Neolithic Site at Kilverstone, Thetford, Norfolk. In VOLUME 71, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
Causewayed enclosures
All of the Norfolk Causewayed enclosure
sites appear to be approximately circular, defined by relatively narrow ditches and pit sections, interspersed with narrow causeways. These enclosures are generally defined by single ditches, however the recently published plot of Roughton (Oswald et al., 2001: fig. 6.7), has identified a second, more ephemeral, inner ditch or feature. The three possible Norfolk examples are relatively small and have a marked circularity in comparison to many other causewayed enclosure sites in England
The way in which they were used is not fully understood, but they may have been a meeting point for small, dispersed groups of people living in the surrounding area, a place where the exchange of goods, ritual feasting and other ceremonial activities might have taken place.
All three enclosures, the only sites of this type known from the county, are notable for their small size and circular shape. In national terms their morphology is rather anomalous, a characteristic which can be interpreted in a number of ways. It has been suggested that they may have more in common with hengiform monuments of the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age than with 'normal' causewayed enclosures of the fourth millennium BC. Alternatively, they might represent a regional tradition distinct to this part of the country. In addition, the geographical distribution of the sites is confined to north-east Norfolk. While some allowance can be made for the usual factors associated with the distribution of cropmark
sites (soils, geology, etc.), at present it seems that the clustering of the three sites in the north-east of the county may be of archaeological significance. The smaller dimensions of the Norfolk sites may be a reflection of the size and dispersal of the communities creating, maintaining and using them and it may not be necessary to assume that they occurred later than elsewhere in Britain. Although at present no excavation has taken place on any of the Norfolk 'causewayed' enclosures so these questions have yet to be answered.
References
Oswald, A., Dyer, C, and Barber, M. 2001. The Creation of Monuments: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures in the British Isles. Swindon: English Heritage
Henge sites
References
Beex, W., Peterson, J 2004. 'The Arminghall henge in space and time: how virtual reality contributes to research on its orientation'. In [Enter the Past] The E-way into the four dimensions of Cultural Heritage, CAA2003, BAR International Series 1227, pp. 490–493, Oxford.http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/Research/researchareas/JWMP/CAA2003.pdf
Clark, J.D.G., 1936 'The Timber Monument at Arminghall and its Affinities', Proceedings of the Prehisoric Society, 2, 1-51
Robertson, D. (NLA), 2005. Norfolk Heritage Exlorer Accessed 7 April 2009
Wade-Martin, P. (ed), 1999 Norfolk from the Air II
Long Barrows
In Norfolk there is only rare evidence of the remains of Long Borrows, most of the remains having been ploughed flat over the years.
The barrow, as well as being used for burial, may also have had ceremonial uses.
Neolithic Industry
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is broken into specific time periods.
Norfolk has a very rich prehistoric past, from the Palaeolithic era 950,000 years ago, to end of the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
2000 years ago. Indeed, Norfolk has the earliest evidence of human occupation of what is now Britain, and some of the country's best-preserved archaeological sites.
Palaeolithic
The period from almost three quarters of a million years ago until around 10,000 years ago.During the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
periods the coast of Norfolk would have been 60–70 km further to the north than today, with much of the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
a wide, open plain. The size of the habitable land would have varied through the different glacial and interglacial
Interglacial
An Interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age...
periods up until the end of the Anglian Stage, as would have the climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
, flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
and fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
, and the general landscape of Norfolk. The Anglian glaciation was the 3rd from last glacial stage and occurred between 400,000 and 500,000 years ago. This stage was the last time the ice sheets reached East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
and it resulted in the deposits known as the Corton Formation.
The majority of the evidence for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic occupation in East Anglia survives as redeposited flakes and tools recovered from river gravel deposits. These river gravels were laid by the ancestral Thames
Ancestral Thames
In central and southern Britain, during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, two rivers drained Britain, the Bytham River and the Thames. For most of Early Pleistocene, the ancestral Thames was the main river with, at its maximum extent, a catchment area that extended into Wales, and across East...
and Bytham River
Bytham River
The Bytham River has been proposed as an ancient river in Pleistocene Great Britain that has been suggested to have run through the English Midlands until around 450,000 years ago...
systems. Large quantities of artefacts were identified from gravel quarries during the 19th and early 20th century due to the increased demand for gravel in the construction industry and the hand sorting of this gravel.
Lower Palaeolithic
- c. 950,000 BC. Homo antecessorHomo antecessorHomo antecessor is an extinct human species dating from 1.2 million to 800,000 years ago, that was discovered by Eudald Carbonell, Juan Luis Arsuaga and J. M. Bermúdez de Castro. H. antecessor is one of the earliest known human varieties in Europe. Various archaeologists and anthropologists have...
evidence in Norfolk.
Bones and flint tools found in coastal deposits near Happisburgh
Happisburgh
Happisburgh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated off the B1159 coast road from Ingham to Bacton.The civil parish has an area of , although this is declining due to cliff erosion. In the 2001 census, before the creation of Walcott parish, it had a...
. The artefacts were in situ in riverine deposits of the Cromer Forest Bed
Cromer Forest Bed
The Cromer Forest Bed formation is exposed at intervals along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, from Weybourne to Kessingland. The forest bed was formed in the Quaternary Period and dates to between 780,000 to 450,000 years ago, within the Cromerian Stage of the Pleistocene...
series. Experts previously thought the earliest humans arrived 700,000 years ago.
The flint assemblage consists of;
-
- a ovate handaxehttp://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.1%20:%20A,
- a thinning flakeLithic flakeIn archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core. Once the proper...
/handaxe thinning flake http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.2%20:%20A, - a flakeLithic flakeIn archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core. Once the proper...
http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.3%20:%20A, - a scraperScraper (archaeology)In archaeology, scrapers are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking purposes. Whereas this term is often used for any unifacially flaked stone tool that defies classification, most lithic analysts maintain that the only true scrapers are defined on the base of...
http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%201999.322.4%20:%20A, - 29 flakes & hammerstoneHammerstoneIn archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the world including Europe, India and North America...
(?) & fragments http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.4%20:%20A, - retouchedRetouch (lithics)Retouch - the work done to an edge of a flint implement in order to make it into a functional tool, or to reshape a used tool. In the case of a core-tool, such as a hand-axe, retouch may simply consist of roughly trimming the edge by striking with a hammerstone, but on smaller, finer flake or blade...
flint flake http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.5%20:%20A, - and Lower(?) Palaeolithic ovate flint hand axehttp://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%20L1977.2%20:%20A.
The importance of the flint assemblage of Happisburgh is not just to the understanding the prehistory of Norfolk, but to the understanding of prehistoric Europe. This is due to the first mentioned hand axe
Hand axe
A hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool typical of the lower and middle Palaeolithic , and is the longest-used tool of human history.-Distribution:...
in the assemblage. The hand axe is an ovate handaxe made from black flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
with pale grey coarse-grained inclusions, one face carries two small areas of pebble cortex
Cortex (archaeology)
In lithic analysis in archaeology the cortex is the outer layer of rock formed on the exterior of raw materials by chemical and mechanical weathering processes. It is often recorded on the dorsal surface of flakes using a three class system: primary , secondary , and tertiary...
, and is in near perfect condition. This handaxe is believed to be the earliest tool yet found in Europe http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/000442.html; it was probably used as a knife for cutting up carcasses http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%202000.99.1%20:%20A.
The environmental conditions of Happisburgh, shown through pollen analysis
Pollen analysis
Analysis of the distribution of pollen grains of various species contained in surface layer deposits, especially peat bogs and lake sediments, from which a record of past climate may be inferred. Because the lake sediments accumulate over time, a core of the mud will show that the mud at the bottom...
, suggests a picture of a temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
woodland with areas of fen carr and aquatic plant
Aquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...
s growing in a maritime
Sea
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...
environment of tidal sediments. With evidence showing a preponderance of pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
and alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
, with oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
and hornbeam
Hornbeam
Hornbeams are relatively small hardwood trees in the genus Carpinus . Though some botanists grouped them with the hazels and hop-hornbeams in a segregate family, Corylaceae, modern botanists place the hornbeams in the birch subfamily Coryloideae...
also present; members of the galingale
Cyperus
Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic and growing in still or slow-moving water up to 0.5 m deep. The species vary greatly in size, with small species...
, buttercup and nettle
Nettle
Nettles constitute between 24 and 39 species of flowering plants of the genus Urtica in the family Urticaceae, with a cosmopolitan though mainly temperate distribution. They are mostly herbaceous perennial plants, but some are annual and a few are shrubby...
families point to fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
or reedswamp environments, while water-starwort
Callitriche
Callitriche is a genus of largely aquatic plants known as water-starworts. Previously, it was the only genus in the family Callitrichaceae. However, according to the APG II system this family is now included in the Plantaginaceae...
, water lilies
Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus...
and bulrush
Typha angustifolia
Typha angustifolia L., , is a perennial herbaceous plant of genus Typha. This cattail is an "obligate wetland" species that is commonly found in the northern hemisphere in brackish locations...
es are among the aquatic plants present.
Other Lower Palaeolithic sites in Norfolk include:
- WhitlinghamWhitlinghamWhitlingham is a small churchless parish, 3 miles east of Norwich, on the south bank of the River Yare, reached from Trowse along Whitlingham Lane.-Church:...
:- worked flint,
- tool,
- cleaver,
- axe,
- collection of Lower Palaeolithic flint implements, including three flint cleavers and five flint handaxes
- KeswickKeswick, South NorfolkKeswick is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated some to the south of the city of Norwich. It should not be mistaken for the coastal settlement of Keswick, near Bacton, which is also in Norfolk....
:- axe,
- flint,
- Acheulian type flint hand-axe,
- Early Wolstonian Stage, side scraper found with flint at the gravel pit near Keswick Mill in 1957
- South AcreSouth AcreSouth Acre is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village has almost disappeared, but the remnants are located about south-west of Castle Acre, north of the town of Swaffham, east of the town of King's Lynn and west of the city of Norwich...
:- axe,
- worked flint,
- flint LevalloisLevallois techniqueThe Levallois technique is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed by precursors to modern humans during the Palaeolithic period....
type hand-axe, missing its tip, found with a Neolithic flint industry at South Acre, - Lower Palaeolithic lithic coreLithic coreIn archaeology, a lithic core is a distinctive artifact that results from the practice of lithic reduction. In this sense, a core is the scarred nucleus resulting from the detachment of one or more flakes from a lump of source material or tool stone, usually by using a hard hammer percussor such...
of ClactonianClactonianThe Clactonian is the name given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tool manufacture that dates to the early part of the interglacial period known as the Hoxnian, the Mindel-Riss or the Holstein stages . Clactonian tools were made by Homo erectus rather than modern humans...
type and a - side scraperScraper (archaeology)In archaeology, scrapers are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking purposes. Whereas this term is often used for any unifacially flaked stone tool that defies classification, most lithic analysts maintain that the only true scrapers are defined on the base of...
made on a flake, found at South Acre between 1935 and 1939
- RuntonWest RuntonWest Runton is a village in North Norfolk, England, approximately ¼ of a mile from the North Sea coast.-Overview:West Runton and East Runton together form the parish of Runton. The village straddles the A149 North Norfolk coast road and is 2½ miles west of Cromer and 1½ miles east of Sheringham...
:- broken tip of a thin pointed Lower Palaeolithic handaxe
There is little evidence of human occupation during the subsequent Ipswichian Stage between around 180,000 and 70,000 years ago, lead.
Middle Palaeolithic
Roughly 60,000 years age to 30,000 years ago.Well-preserved in-situ Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites are exceedingly rare in Europe and very unusual within a British context.
- Lynford Quarry, MundfordMundfordMundford is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated at the intersection of two major routes, the A134 Colchester to King's Lynn road and the A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road, about north west of Thetford...
: 60,000 years ago Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals)
In-situ mammoth remains and associated Mousterian
Mousterian
Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age.-Naming:...
stone tools and debitage
Debitage
The term debitage refers to all the waste material produced during lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools. This assemblage includes, but is not limited to, different kinds of lithic flakes, shatter, and production errors and rejects....
. The artefactual, faunal and environmental evidence were sealed, in-situ, within a Middle Devensian palaeochannel with a dark organic fill.
44 pristine Mousterian flint handaxes, the remains of at least nine Mammuthus primigenius, (woolly mammoths).
The assemblage.
Some 590 worked flint artefacts consisting of number of handaxes (pointed, subcordiform, cordiform, ovate and bout coupé forms), three cores and a number of retouched, utilised and waste flakes were individually recorded with over 1,000 pieces of microdebitage
Debitage
The term debitage refers to all the waste material produced during lithic reduction and the production of chipped stone tools. This assemblage includes, but is not limited to, different kinds of lithic flakes, shatter, and production errors and rejects....
recovered from the 0.50 m2 spit units. A number of the handaxes and flakes were found in direct association with bones and/or tusks. The artefacts are generally fresh and relatively sharp with minimal abrasion or post-depositional edge damage. Typologically the assemblage falls within the Mousterian of Acheulean
Acheulean
Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture associated with early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia and Europe. Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains...
Tradition (MTA) facies of the Middle Palaeolithic http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3892.
The Fauna, flora and environmental evidence.
In total, some 2,079 bones, tusks, antlers and teeth of Mammuthus primigenius (mammoth), Coelodonta antiquitatis(woolly rhinoceros), Rangifer tarandus (reindeer), Equus ferus (horse), Bison priscus (bison), Canis lupus (wolf), Vulpes vulpes or Alopex lagopus (red or Arctic fox) and Ursus arctos (brown bear) were individually recorded and a further 25,000 bone, tooth and tusk fragments recovered. Feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
of scavengers (possibly the spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta) were also recovered from the organic sediments. No articulated skeletons were found. The bone varied in condition with some bones extensively weathered and others exhibiting traces of gnawing by predator-scavengers. Bone fractures characteristic of marrow extraction by hominids have been identified on the some of the reindeer and horse bones recovered from the deposit. The faunal remains recovered from the palaeochannel are typical of the Pin Hole Mammal Assemblage Zone of the Middle Devensian. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3892
Through archaeo-environmental analysis, 150 species of insect have been identified. These indicate the presence of standing water, marsh, bare sand and grass. Dung
Dung beetle
Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on feces. All of these species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae. This beetle can also be referred to as the scarab beetle. As most species of...
and carcass beetles add to the picture of giant rotting mammals being scavenged by hyenas and Neanderthals http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.3892. The presence of sub-Arctic plants, insects and snails at this site indicates that the Neanderthals of this time lived in a climate like that of modern Scandinavia.http://www.iceage.bham.ac.uk/IA%20human.htm
Interpretation
The mammoths appear to have been butchered but it is unclear whether these beasts were hunted, or their meat simply scavenged from corpses. The site is internationally important due to the rarity of such sites being preserved.
Other sites
There is little evidence from this period. Other sites within modern Norfolk include:
- Little Cressingham see; Lawson, 1978: ‘A Hand Axe from Little Cressingham’, AJ Lawson (E Anglian Archaeology Report #8, 1978; p. 1)
Upper Palaeolithic
The Upper Palaeolithic period covers the end of the last glaciation Devensian Stage and the immediate post-glacial period Flandrian. At the beginning of this period Britain was a part of the European landmass and settlement in Norfolk was just an extension of the settlement of the North European Plain, while by the end of this period it had become more or less the island that we now know. At the end of the Devensian the sea-level was about 30 m below present with most of the land becoming forested with the ameliorating climate. In the mid-9th millennium BP, with the breaching of the land bridge, East Anglia became cut off from the rest of north-west Europe. Sea levels rose rapidly and peat formation commenced in low lying areas.Although material has been recovered from across the region dating to this period, there have been very few large scale excavations, particularly in recent years. The majority of material identified from East Anglia consists of stray artefacts with only a few known stratified
Stratification (archeology)
Stratification is a paramount and base concept in archaeology, especially in the course of excavation. It is largely based on the Law of Superposition...
sites. Norfolk also lacks the cave sites which have proved to be so important for the preservation of sites in other areas e.g. Kent's Cavern
Kent's Cavern
Kents Cavern is a cave system in Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable for its archaeological and geological features. The caves are a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Scheduled Ancient Monument , and are open to the public.-Prehistory:The caverns and passages at the site were...
, Torbay
Torbay
Torbay is an east-facing bay and natural harbour, at the western most end of Lyme Bay in the south-west of England, situated roughly midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. Part of the ceremonial county of Devon, Torbay was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
; Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England near the villages of Creswell, Whitwell and Elmton...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
; Gough's Cave
Gough's Cave
Gough's Cave is located in Cheddar Gorge on the Mendip Hills, in Cheddar, Somerset, England. The cave is deep and is long,and contains a variety of large chambers and rock formations. It contains the Cheddar Yeo, the largest underground river system in Britain.- History :The initial sections of...
, Cheddar Gorge, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. The Earlier Upper Palaeolithic is very poorly represented across the whole region although there is somewhat more known from the Later Upper Palaeolithic http://www.eaareports.demon.co.uk/Assessment%20Palaeo-Meso.pdf#search='upper%20palaeolithic%20norfolk'.
Early Upper Palaeolithic
Flint leaf points reported at Heacham
Heacham
Heacham is a village of 4,707 inhabitants, located in north-west Norfolk, England, between King's Lynn, to the south and Hunstanton, about to the north, on The Wash.- History :...
and Feltwell
Feltwell
Feltwell is a village 10 miles west of Thetford, Norfolk, England, and is in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.Feltwell is a small village with a thriving community. The village has a small primary school which was originally built as a hospital. The pubs, The Lodge and the West End, are...
but it is not certain that they are not products of the later, Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
industries which also included leaf points.
List of sites
- Carrow RoadCarrow RoadCarrow Road is a football stadium in Norwich, England, and is the home of Norwich City Football Club. The stadium is located toward the easterly end of the city, not far from Norwich railway station and the River Wensum....
football ground. Experts believe the tools could be from the Upper Palaeolithic era, could be 12,000 years old, from 10,000 BC.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/norfolk/2994828.stm
- TitchwellTitchwellTitchwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north Norfolk coast some west of the village of Brancaster, north-east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of King's Lynn and north-west of the city of Norwich.The civil parish has...
, near Brancaster, is a beach site exposed only at very low tides which has yielded a large collection of Late Up Palaeo flints and is clearly a near-intact land surface, suffering slow erosion.http://www.biab.ac.uk/online/results1.asp?ItemID=70358(J J Wymer and P A Robins 1994)
- Hockwold cum WiltonHockwold cum WiltonHockwold cum Wilton is 10 miles west of Thetford, Norfolk, England and is in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. It is located near several USAF airbases, notably RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall...
evidence of long blade industries (Healy 1996, 53) - MethwoldMethwold' is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, on the edge of the Norfolk Fens and BrecklandsIt covers an area of and had a population of 1,476 in 591 households as of the 2001 census...
evidence of long blade industries (Healy 1996, 53)
Healy F., 1996 The Fenland Project No. 11: The Wissey Embayment: evidence for pre-Iron Age
occupation accumulated prior to the Fenland Project, E. Anglian Archaeol. 78, 53
J J Wymer and P A Robins 1994 A long blade flint industry beneath boreal peat at Titchwell, Norfolk Norfolk Archaeology, Vol XLII, part 1
In general this period is still poorly understood in Norfolk.
Mesolithic
The beginning of the HoloceneHolocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
corresponds with the beginning of the Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
age in most of Europe around 10,000 years ago. Temperatures rose, probably to levels similar to those today, and forests expanded further. By 8,500 years ago, the rising sea levels caused by the melting glaciers cut Britain off from continental Europe for the last time. The warmer climate changed the Arctic environment to one of pine, birch and alder forest; this less open landscape was less conducive to the large herds of reindeer and horse that had previously sustained humans. Those animals were replaced in people's diets by less social animals such as elk, red deer and aurochs which would have required different hunting techniques in order to be effectively exploited. Tools changed to incorporate barbs which could snag the flesh of a hunted animal, making it harder for it to escape alive. Tiny microliths were developed for hafting onto harpoons and spears. Woodworking tools such as adzes appear in the archaeological record
Archaeological record
The archaeological record is the body of physical evidence about the past. It is one of the most basic concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record....
, although some flint blade types remained similar to their Palaeolithic predecessors. The dog was domesticated because of its benefits during hunting (see Star Carr
Star Carr
Star Carr is a Mesolithic archaeological site in North Yorkshire, England. It is around five miles south of Scarborough.It is generally regarded as the most important and informative Mesolithic site in Great Britain...
) and the wetland environments created by the warmer weather would have been a rich source of fish and game. It is likely that these environmental changes were accompanied by social changes with the groups that inhabited Britain at this time. Evidence from other parts of Britain suggests that during this period the people were becoming more settled rather than solely nomadic see Howichhttp://www.ncl.ac.uk/howick/main/ on the Northumbrian coast, Dunbar
Dunbar
Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....
in East Lothian http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba69/news, although there is no evidence found in Norfolk to date.
Sites
- TitchwellTitchwellTitchwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the north Norfolk coast some west of the village of Brancaster, north-east of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of King's Lynn and north-west of the city of Norwich.The civil parish has...
has a rich site of the Late Glacial and Early Mesolithic period. The site lay beside a small stream but the then coastline was still far distant - the sea level 60 metres below its present level.
- Leman and Ower Banks, 40 km off Norfolk. A barbed antler point radiocarbon dated to about 9800BC, dredged off the sea bed in 1931.
Due to the coast being much further out than the present coast line and the barbed antler point found in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
suggests there are many more Early Mesolithic sites under the North Sea off the Norfolk coast.
Other inland sites
- Kelling HeathKelling HeathKelling Heath is an area of heathland on the coast of North Norfolk, England, between Holt and Weybourne. It has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and is described by Natural England as 'a fine example of oceanic heathland'...
. In terms of scattered flintwork over a large area, Kelling Heath is one of the richest sites of this time in Norfolk. With artifacts including coresLithic coreIn archaeology, a lithic core is a distinctive artifact that results from the practice of lithic reduction. In this sense, a core is the scarred nucleus resulting from the detachment of one or more flakes from a lump of source material or tool stone, usually by using a hard hammer percussor such...
, blades, flakeLithic flakeIn archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core. Once the proper...
s, in all 51 Mesolithic flint objects; 3 two-platform blade cores, 3 one-platform blade cores, 1 core, 15 blades and bladelets, 29 flakes and flake fragments http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp?page=item&itemId=NWHCM%20:%201999.90.18%20:%20A. Due to the intensely acid soil of this part of the Cromer RidgeCromer RidgeCromer Ridge is a ridge of old glacial moraines that stands next to the coast above Cromer, Norfolk, England. Cromer Ridge seems to have been the front line of the ice sheet for some time at the last glaciation, which is shown by the large size of the feature...
nothing but the flintwork has survived. Such a high (high for Norfolk) vantage point would have allowed the Mesolithic hunters magnificent views of the wide plains that are now the North Sea, which may have been the reason for the visits, probably seasonal from generation to generation.
- Great MeltonGreat MeltonGreat Melton is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 148 in 59 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of South Norfolk.-External links:...
. This parish on the River Yare has revealed through excavation and fieldwalking a number of Mesolithic sites, including one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Norfolk. A site near Pockthorpe has produced over 32000 mesolithic flint artifacts, including over 18000 flakes, over 12000 blades and over 280 mircoliths. The site was probably an open camp and flint working site. In the north of the parish close to the River Yare, a large number of Mesolithic and neolithic flint artifacts have been found which may suggest the flint was mined and flints worked on the site during the two periods. (Wymer, J.J. & Robins, P.A.. 1995.)
- Spong HillSpong HillSpong Hill is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery site located at North Elmham in Norfolk, England. The largest Early Anglo-Saxon burial site ever excavated, it contains within it 2259 cremations and 57 inhumations. The site at Spong Hill consisted of two cemeteries, a large cremation cemetery and a smaller,...
. There are signs of forest clearance by burning from this site.
The Breckland
Breckland
The Breckland as a landscape region is an unusual natural habitat of England. It comprises the gorse-covered sandy heath that exists in the north of the county of Suffolk and the south of Norfolk. An area of considerable interest for its unusual flora and fauna, it lies to the south east of another...
district seems to have been attractive to hunter-gatherers during the Late Mesolithic (c. 6000-4000 BC). This may be due to its proximity to the fen-edge and salt marshes, which were rich in wildfowl, and eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
s. The lighter soils of Breckland, lighter than on the claylands to the north, would have resulted in the wildwoods being less dense thus enabling easier hunting of deer and other species. Two recent excavations in different parts of Thetford are:
- Redcastle Furze near ThetfordThetfordThetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
, Mesolithic flintworking site - Two Mile Bottom near ThetfordThetfordThetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
, Mesolithic flintworking site
Microliths have frequently been found in the Brecks, including along the Little Ouse Valley, and around the edges of the meres
Mere (lake)
Mere in English refers to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth, e.g. Martin Mere. A significant effect of its shallow depth is that for all or most of the time, it has no thermocline.- Etymology :...
(small lakes).
The heavier boulder clay
Boulder clay
Boulder clay, in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and North America...
of the Norfolk till plain has a site that has produced more flint tranchet axes than any other in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
- BanhamBanhamBanham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is about 7 miles north of Diss, 12 miles east of Thetford and 20 miles south west of Norwich. It is home to Banham Zoo....
Wymer, J.J. & Robins, P.A.. 1995. A Mesolithic Site at Great Melton IN Norfolk Archaeology. Vol. XLII, pp 125–147. Vol. XLII, p. 125ff.
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, 4000-2500BC, has produced a larger archaeological record than the previous prehistoric periods due to their impact and changing their surroundings that the Neolithic peoples had on the landscape, from industrial to maybe religious needs. By the time of the Neolithic Norfolk, like the rest of Britain, was cut off from mainland Europe by the North Sea and the English channelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
.
Norfolk has revealed important information concerning this period in British history.
Neolithic communities seem to have preferred Norfolk's light soils and well-drained river valley tracts, rather than the heavily wooded central claylands, although these were probably occupied to some extent and also exploited for hunting and foraging. Excavation results indicate that the woodland was dominated by oak and pine, see Broome Heath and Colney
Colney
Colney is a village in the western outskirts of Norwich in Norfolk, England. It is in the administrative district of South Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 124 in 35 households at the 2001 census....
. The fertile Rich Loam
Loam
Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration . Loam soils generally contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils, have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils, and are easier to till than clay soils...
region of north and east Norfolk, with its loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
-rich soils, may have been especially congenial, and the number of possible monuments here is striking.
Neolithic settlements
- Broome Heath The Broome Heath earthwork formed part of a monument complex which seems to have developed over some time, with a long barrowLong barrowA long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs...
and round barrowRound barrowRound barrows are one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe they are found in many parts of the world because of their simple construction and universal purpose....
constructed north-east of the northern terminal of the C-sharped enclosure, and a round barrow south-east of the southern terminal. - KilverstoneKilverstoneKilverstone is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk east of Thetford.It covers an area of and had a population of 60 in 25 households as of the 2001 census...
, ThetfordThetfordThetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
, 226 earlier Neolithic pits interprecated as temporary occupation site (Garrow et-al 2005).
Duncan Garrow, Emma Beadsmoore & Mark Knight. 2005. Pit Clusters and the Temporality of Occupation: an Earlier Neolithic Site at Kilverstone, Thetford, Norfolk. In VOLUME 71, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
Causewayed enclosures
All of the Norfolk Causewayed enclosure
Causewayed enclosure
A causewayed enclosure is a type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe. More than 100 examples are recorded in France and 70 in England, while further sites are known in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Slovakia.The term "causewayed enclosure" is...
sites appear to be approximately circular, defined by relatively narrow ditches and pit sections, interspersed with narrow causeways. These enclosures are generally defined by single ditches, however the recently published plot of Roughton (Oswald et al., 2001: fig. 6.7), has identified a second, more ephemeral, inner ditch or feature. The three possible Norfolk examples are relatively small and have a marked circularity in comparison to many other causewayed enclosure sites in England
- Buxton with Lammas
- RoughtonRoughton, NorfolkRoughton is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is south of Cromer, north of Norwich and north-west of North Walsham. The village straddles the A140 between Cromer and Norwich and the B1463. The nearest railway station is at Roughton Road for the Bittern...
see http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=600.60.3&Image=312&gst= - SalthouseSalthouseSalthouse is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the salt marshes of North Norfolk. It is north of Holt, west of Sheringham and north of Norwich. The village is on the A149 coast road between King's Lynn and Great Yarmouth. The nearest railway station...
in north-east Norfolk. The monument is approximately circular, with a diameter of 60 metres. The circuit appears to be divided into at least seven separate lengths of ditch, although there is a larger gap to the north where a further two stretches of ditch may be obscured. The enclosure lies at a height of 50 metres OD on a south facing slope. The location overlooks the areas to the East, South and West but is topographically situated slightly downslope from the higher ground to the immediate north.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/past/past40.html#Norfolk
The way in which they were used is not fully understood, but they may have been a meeting point for small, dispersed groups of people living in the surrounding area, a place where the exchange of goods, ritual feasting and other ceremonial activities might have taken place.
All three enclosures, the only sites of this type known from the county, are notable for their small size and circular shape. In national terms their morphology is rather anomalous, a characteristic which can be interpreted in a number of ways. It has been suggested that they may have more in common with hengiform monuments of the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age than with 'normal' causewayed enclosures of the fourth millennium BC. Alternatively, they might represent a regional tradition distinct to this part of the country. In addition, the geographical distribution of the sites is confined to north-east Norfolk. While some allowance can be made for the usual factors associated with the distribution of cropmark
Cropmark
Cropmarks or Crop marks are a means through which sub-surface archaeological, natural and recent features may be visible from the air or a vantage point on higher ground or a temporary platform...
sites (soils, geology, etc.), at present it seems that the clustering of the three sites in the north-east of the county may be of archaeological significance. The smaller dimensions of the Norfolk sites may be a reflection of the size and dispersal of the communities creating, maintaining and using them and it may not be necessary to assume that they occurred later than elsewhere in Britain. Although at present no excavation has taken place on any of the Norfolk 'causewayed' enclosures so these questions have yet to be answered.
References
Oswald, A., Dyer, C, and Barber, M. 2001. The Creation of Monuments: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures in the British Isles. Swindon: English Heritage
Henge sites
- Arminghall Henge A small henge at Arminghall in Norfolk which also enclosed a ring of posts has a diameter of only 30 metres. It lies near the junction of the rivers Yare and Tas, less than 4 km south of the centre of Norwich. Two circular ring ditches, the outer one 1.5 m deep and the inner one 2.3 m deep, with indications of a bank that once stood between them. In the centre stood eight massive posts, almost 1 m in diameter. The site dates to the Neolithic, with a radiocarbon date of 3650-2650 Cal BC (4440±150) from charcoal from a post-pit. The henge is orientated on the mid-winter sunset. Aerial photograph
- Markshall Another possible example, which has never seen excavation, has been recorded on the opposite side of the River Tas by aerial photography at Markshall (Wade-Martin 1999, plate 22).
- CostesseyCostesseyCostessey is a civil parish situated west of Norwich in Norfolk, England. The parish comprises two settlements: the long-established village of Costessey , and New Costessey , which developed during the first half of the 20th century and has become a suburb of Norwich...
An undated circular enclosure is located in pasture, close to the confluence of the Rivers Tud and Wensum. It comprises a circular bank, with an internal diameter of about 30 m, and a circular ditch outside it. It has been suggested that it may be comparable to the Neolithic henge at Arminghall. (Robertson, D. 2005.)
References
Beex, W., Peterson, J 2004. 'The Arminghall henge in space and time: how virtual reality contributes to research on its orientation'. In [Enter the Past] The E-way into the four dimensions of Cultural Heritage, CAA2003, BAR International Series 1227, pp. 490–493, Oxford.http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/Research/researchareas/JWMP/CAA2003.pdf
Clark, J.D.G., 1936 'The Timber Monument at Arminghall and its Affinities', Proceedings of the Prehisoric Society, 2, 1-51
Robertson, D. (NLA), 2005. Norfolk Heritage Exlorer Accessed 7 April 2009
Wade-Martin, P. (ed), 1999 Norfolk from the Air II
Long Barrows
In Norfolk there is only rare evidence of the remains of Long Borrows, most of the remains having been ploughed flat over the years.
- Broome Heath, Ditchingham A Neolithic burial mound or long barrow, about 50m long and 25m wide. Human remains were found in the 19th century, but these were probably a later insertion. Neolithic flints and pottery fragments have been found over the years, often being excavated by rabbits.
The barrow, as well as being used for burial, may also have had ceremonial uses.
- Harpley Common This Neolithic long barrow is visible as an oval mound 1.2m high and 31m long by 23m wide. This is part of a larger mound that has been destroyed by ploughing and the construction of the Harpley to Weasenham St Peter road. The mound is surrounded by a ditch about 4.5m wide. The ditch is now infilled.
- FelthorpeFelthorpeFelthorpe is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 710 in 287 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Broadland....
This is a possible Neolithic long barrow, which survives as an earthwork mound.
- RoughtonRoughton, NorfolkRoughton is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is south of Cromer, north of Norwich and north-west of North Walsham. The village straddles the A140 between Cromer and Norwich and the B1463. The nearest railway station is at Roughton Road for the Bittern...
Seen as a crop mark
- Marlingford Seen as a crop mark
- TuttingtonTuttingtonTuttington is a village is located in the civil parish of Burgh and Tuttington, in the English county of Norfolk. The village is 11.1 miles south of Cromer, 15 miles north of Norwich and 129 miles north-east of London. The village lies 3 miles east of the nearby town of Aylsham...
Seen as a crop mark
Neolithic Industry
- Grimes GravesGrimes GravesGrime's Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between around circa 3000 BC and circa 1900 BC, although production may have continued well into the Bronze and Iron Ages owing to the low cost of flint...
is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon.jpg)
Brandon, SuffolkBrandon is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the Forest Heath local government district.Brandon is located in the Breckland area on the border of Suffolk with the adjoining county of Norfolk...
close to the border between Norfolk and SuffolkSuffolkSuffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
.A recent survey by English HeritageEnglish HeritageEnglish Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
found that Grimes Graves was one of only ten Neolithic flint mines known in England, of which only six survive as earthworks. Dating from roughly 3000-2000 BC, mining began at the site during the later Neolithic and continued for a while into the Bronze AgeBronze AgeThe Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. The Anglo-SaxonsAnglo-SaxonsAnglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
believed the site was the work of the god Grim -(possibly a euphemism for Woden,) -the place-name means 'Grim's quarries'. The available radiocarbon dates suggest that mining may have taken place over a period of between 500 and 1,000 years. It extends over an area of around 37 ha (0.37 km² / 96 acres) and consists of at least 433 shafts dug into the natural chalk to reach seams of flint. The deepest shafts are more than 12 m (40 feet) deep and the widest is around 18 m (60 ft,) in diameter at the surface. It has been calculated that more than 2,000 tonnes of chalk had to removed from the larger shafts, taking 20 people around five or six months, before stone of sufficient quality was reached. An upper, (topstone,) and middle (wallstone,) seam of flint was dug through on the way to the deeper third seam (floorstone,) which most interested the miners. The mines were sunk at a rate of one every one or two years. Although recent research has suggested that small groups of mines may have been dug simultaneously. Mining was however neither intensive, nor on an 'industrial' scale, as we understand the term today. The geology at Grimes Graves comprises a number of flint layers lying below sands and clays and interspersed between chalk. It was the upper three seams of flint which were exploited, and the lowest of the three, known as 'floorstone', was generally targeted because it was in larger tabular nodules, it was easily flaked, less flawed than flint from the other layers, and had a lustrous deep black colour. To get to the flint the Neolithic miners dug shafts up to 12 m deep with radiating galleries at their base, as well as shallower pits from 3 m to 8 m deep. Some mines are grouped together with two or three in a single quarry, implying that some were dug in sequence.
- WhitlinghamWhitlinghamWhitlingham is a small churchless parish, 3 miles east of Norwich, on the south bank of the River Yare, reached from Trowse along Whitlingham Lane.-Church:...
Evidence has been found in the area of a Neolithic flint axe factory, including unfinished axes and waste flakes. In the 18th century a human skeleton, together with the picks made from deer's antlers, were found in one of the chalk tunnels - possibly the body of one of the Neolithic flint miners.