Prehistoric Norfolk


The 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.

Palaeolithic

The period from almost three-quarters of a million years ago until around 10,000 years ago.
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.

Lower Palaeolithic

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; it was probably used as a knife for cutting up carcasses.
The environmental conditions of Happisburgh, shown through pollen analysis, suggests a picture of a temperate woodland with areas of fen carr and aquatic plants 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 bulrushes 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.

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.
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,.
The assemblage.
Some 590 worked flint artefacts consisting of number of handaxes, 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 facies of the Middle Palaeolithic.
The Fauna, flora and environmental evidence.
In total, some 2,079 bones, tusks, antlers and teeth of Mammuthus primigenius, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Rangifer tarandus, Equus ferus, Bison priscus, Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes or Alopex lagopus and Ursus arctos were individually recorded and a further 25,000 bone, tooth and tusk fragments recovered. Feces of scavengers 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 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.
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. 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.
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:
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 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.
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.

Mesolithic

The beginning of the Holocene 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 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 Howich on the Northumbrian coast, Dunbar in East Lothian, 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. This may be due to its proximity to the fen-edge and salt marshes, which were rich in wildfowl, and eels. 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.
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.

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 channel.
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, 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, 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.