Norfolk

Fragments of copper alloy unearthed at one of Britain’s most important archaeology sites have been revealed to be parts of an incredibly rare Iron Age helmet.

A spectacular new Norfolk treasure has been unveiled – after years of being used as a doorstop.

The 3,500-year-old Rudham Dirk, a ceremonial Middle Bronze Age dagger, was first ploughed up near East Rudham more than a decade ago. But the landowner didn’t realise what it was and was using it to prop open his office door.

And the bronze treasure even came close to being thrown in a skip, but luckily archaeologists identified it in time.

Now the dirk has been bought for Norfolk for close to £41,000 and is now on display in Norwich Castle Museum.

Dr John Davies, Chief Curator of Norfolk Museums Service, said: “This is one of the real landmark discoveries.”

The dirk – a kind of dagger – was never meant to be used as a weapon and was deliberately bent when it was made as an offering to the gods.

Only five others like it have ever been found in Europe – including one at Oxborough in 1988, which is now in the British Museum. But thanks to a £38,970 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, following a £2,000 donation from the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, the Bronze Age treasure will now stay in the county.

Dr Tim Pestell, who is Curator of Archaeology with the NMS, has been negotiating with the (unnamed) landowner for almost a year. He said: “As soon as my colleagues told me about it we started to plan how we could acquire it, so it could stay in Norfolk and be on display here.”

Dr Andrew Rogers, whose team first identified the dirk, said he never expected the Oxborough discovery would be repeated. “It’s absolutely incredible. Gosh – to have a find like this twice in a lifetime – this is unbelievable,” he said.

The 1.9kg (4lb) dirk is made from bronze, which is nine-tenths copper and one-tenth tin. The nearest source for the copper is Wales, while the tin may have come from Cornwall.

Straightened out, it would be 68cm long, slightly shorter than the Oxborough example. It may even have been made in the same workshop, maybe even by the same craftsperson.

Sophie Cabot, president of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, added: “We’re really excited – it would have been a great shame if we’d have lost it.”

edp24.co.uk/norfolk-life/archaeologists_hail_incredible_norfolk_bronze_age_discovery_1_3857540

A team of archaeologists from the University of Nottingham are to commence a dig at the Roman town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund, just outside Norwich, looking for evidence of occupation in the Iron Age.

The site lies just a mile or so from the ploughed up remains of Arminghall Henge (circa 3200 BCE) and is now thought to have been of much greater significance in the pre-Roman period than had hitherto been supposed.

Further details can be found at:

eveningnews24.co.uk/content/eveningnews24/norwich-news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=xNews&itemid=NOED18%20Aug%202010%2013%3A02%3A53%3A417

Lost land under the sea.....

It is just eight inches long, but its discovery changed what we know about prehistoric Europe and our ancestors.

The harpoon, which was found by a Lowestoft fishing trawler in 1931, was yesterday under the lens of a Norwegian television crew, who are making a documentary on the origins of Norway.

It is 14,000 years old, but in perfect condition, the points carved into it still sharp. It would have been used for hunting by modern man in late Paleolithic or early Mesolithic times; a time before written records when people lived in hunter-gatherer communities.

But it is where it was found, 25 miles off the coast of Cromer, that makes it important to history. When it was dredged off the sea bed in 1931, hidden inside a lump of peat, it was taken home by Pilgrim Lockwood, the skipper of the fishing boat Colinda. It later ended up in Norwich’s Castle Museum, where it fascinated archaeologists. They thought it might have been dropped by hunters on a fishing expedition. But later tests showed that the freshwater peat it came from would have been on land thousands of years ago. They realised the existence of land in the North Sea, long since drowned, called Doggerland.

The harpoon is now on display in the Museum of Rural Life in Gressenhall, near Dereham, but was being filmed in the study centre at the Castle Museum yesterday.

Its significance to Norwegian history is that it shows how people from south-west Europe could have got to Norway. The theory is that in the last ice age, people from Iberia moved up into Britain, across Doggerland and into Scandinavia.

Producer Ole Egil Strkson said: “This particular object is the first clue that that happened.”

The producers had been hoping to find relatives of Pilgrim Lockwood to tell the story of how he found the harpoon. What is known is that he returned to the site in 1932 to take the peat samples which were used for testing.

The television crew said they felt moved by the age and significance of the deer antler harpoon, known as the Leman and Ower harpoon after the sandbanks where it was found. Presenter Samina Bruket said: “I was allowed to hold it. To think it is 14,000 years old is just amazing. I had seen pictures of it but it is even more beautiful than I thought, it was so shiny and well preserved.”

Mr Storkson said: “It has been carved, so you can see it really has been used by humans.”

Alan West, a curator of archaeology with Norfolk museum service, said: “It was originally part of a pair. The barbs faced each other with a long shaft used to stab down, like the eel spears you see from the 19th century.”

The programme, which will be called Norwegian Roots, is due to be shown in December on the biggest Norwegian television station in prime-time.

The film crew went on to visit Holme-next-the-sea, near Hunstanton, where they filmed peat and remains of tree roots visible at low tide, showing that there was once land which is now covered by sea.

They are also planning to visit Vince Gaffney, of Birmingham University and an expert in Doggerland. He says that: “a very real, human tragedy lies behind the loss of this immense landscape”, and that with global warming and sea levels rising, it has relevance today.

About Doggerland

Doggerland, named after the Dogger Bank sandbank, is thought to have existed between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago.

During the last ice age, much more water was contained in the polar ice caps, and the North Sea included an area of land larger than England and Wales, linking East Anglia with Holland and Belgium, with a much narrower stretch of water cutting off Britain from Norway.

It is thought to have been a land of rivers and marshes, which offered good hunting grounds for people. As the earth warmed and sea levels rose 8,000 years ago, the land was covered by water. Sea levels rose at one or two metres per century, creating a loss of land which would have been noticeable to the residents but not enough to drown them overnight.

tinyurl.com/yhupq53

Europe’s Lost World – Rediscovery of Doggerland..
britarch.ac.uk/books/Gaffney2009

Excavations will target some of the pre-Roman features shown up by the geophysical survey of 2007.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8219620.stm

The story from Dredging News (what, you don’t read it?):

sandandgravel.com/news/article.asp?v1=11680

The museum at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, near Dereham, currently has an exhibition called ‘Norfolk’s First Farmers’. Items on display include a famous 11,500-year-old antler harpoon used for hunting, and which was dredged up from the sea floor north of Cromer in 1931, and a bronze-age cauldron.

A demonstration of how Stone Age delicacies were prepared is taking place at the museum from next Monday to Friday.

For information about these events contact the museum on 01362 860563 or visit museums.norfolk.gov.uk

Excavations in Ber Street have unearthed the traces of a Bronze Age barrow, including pieces of burial urn. The barrow is thought to be the first found in the centre of the city.

A team of four archaeologists has been working at the site for two weeks but, because of the discovery, has been given an extra week to continue searching and recording.

The barrow would have been within sight of the confluence of the Rivers Tas and Yare – an area which includes the Arminghall henge.

See the article by Tara Grieves in the EDP
at snipurl.com/wlmg

A gold torc made from 25 metres of twisted wire was found in Sedgeford, Norfolk in the 1960s – but it had a bit missing. It went on display in the British Museum (who don’t care if things are a bit battered). Now Steve Hammond, a local amateur archaeologist, has found the missing section, about 400 yards away from the original find spot. Happily, the British Museum has been able to buy it with money from their Friends and the National Art Collections Fund – so the two bits are reunited once more. Ahh.

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1922526,00.html

It has beautifully snazzy La Tene style ends – you can see a picture on the British Museum Compass website.

An article by Ben Kendall of the Eastern Daily Press online, 26th April 2005:

One of the biggest hauls of Bronze Age artefacts ever found in Norfolk has been uncovered in a garden – but it very nearly ended up in a skip.

The 145 items dating from circa 800BC were discovered in Norwich by gardener Simon Francis as he landscaped the grounds of a house on Poplar Avenue, near Newmarket Road.

Norfolk County Council archaeologists have described the haul as one of the largest and most significant they have known, providing a vital insight into the era.

But yesterday Mr Francis admitted he had not initially appreciated the importance of the find. He said: “I have been working as a gardener for years and I’ve often come across bits of pottery.

“At first I just thought these were bits of gate posts from Victorian times or something so I suppose I could have easily thrown them away. Fortunately there were some items like axe and spear heads which stood out.”

Property owner Shane Target said he had delighted such a find had been made. He said: “I know a bit about archaeology and I am fascinated by it.

“When Simon told me what he had found I came down to the garden and we both realised we had found something pretty special.”

Since the initial discovery of 135 items on Friday, archaeologists have revisited the site and found more items including a Viking broach.

The haul included axe heads, spear-heads, sword parts, tools and ingots.

Curator of archaeology Alan West said: “This is one of the biggest finds in Norfolk and as such is very significant.

“The items are in good condition and the more items we find the better knowledge we can develop of the era.

“It seems the items had been buried in a shallow pit. I would have thought the items we buried there as it was a safe area and they planned to return to recover them at a later date but, for whatever reason, that never happened.

“Finding the Viking broach is particularly unusual. It is rare to find items from two completely different eras all on one site.”

Fellow curator Tim Pestell said he hoped the items would eventually be displayed at Norwich Castle. “The coroner will have to decide if this qualifies as treasure which it almost certainly does,” he said. “Then we will look to put it on public display.”

He added: “I got the call about this at the end of the day on Friday when I was about to go home. It was one of those moments when you think ‘should I answer the phone’. Obviously now I’m glad I did.”

Summarised from James Goffin’s article, “Norfolk’s changing landscape set for web”, published on 17.11.04 by EDP24.

The Norfolk Historic Environment Record (NHER) could be made available to the public over the internet in a £140,000 project. It contains more than 40,000 entries detailing archaeological activity, sites, finds, cropmarks, earthworks, industrial remains, defensive structures and historic buildings in the county.

It’s currently held on a computer database with built-in digital maps, and there are more detailed paper records for many of the sites.

Currently the records are only available by appointment at the archaeological services’ base at Gressenhall, near Dereham. However, the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service is bidding for lottery funding to make easily understandable summaries of the records available on the web.

A decision on the lottery application should be made by March. If successful the scheme could start in July and be completed by June 2007, with records being made available in batches as the project progresses.

Eastern Daily Press

Torc discovery rivals Snettisham hoard

An Iron Age torc unearthed in a Norfolk field this summer has been hailed as an exceptional find on a par with the famed Snettisham hoard.

Norfolk Museums Service expert Dr John Davies said the item dated back to the Iceni tribe, probably a generation before Iceni leader Boudicca lived.

He said: “It is indeed a very fine example. It compares with some of the very finest examples that have turned up at Snettisham.

“It’s a very exceptional find, a delightful find in many respects because it’s aesthetically beautiful.

“The number we have of these isn’t vast, so every one that turns up is important.”

Dr Davies said he would love to see the artefact, which was found by farmer Owen Carter in July and declared treasure by a coroner last week, on display in the Castle Museum, Norwich.

“It would be lovely for people to come and see and appreciate the magnificent craftsmanship of the people of the time,” he said.

“We would be interested in acquiring it if we possibly can. It’s something we would love to put into our Boudicca gallery.”

But the museums service will have to wait for the torc to be valued and then look into applying for funding.

A report by Dr JD Hill of the British Museum revealed that the item, which was made between 200 and 50 BC , survived more than 2000 years intact before suffering recent minor damage from agricultural machinery.

He added that it was similar to the “Snettisham Great Torc, but lacking the elaborate La Tene or Early Celtic design”.

Dr Davies said the electrum torc would have belonged to a prestigious figure in Iron Age Norfolk and Boudicca would have worn similar jewellery.

“It would a badge denoting how prestigious they were, belonging to a tribal chief for example,” he said.

“We can tell they were someone very important in the society because of the value, craft and care that was spent on them.

“It adds to our understanding of the great wealth possessed in west Norfolk at that time, which suggests it was a very important area.”

It will soon be a shrine to the modern age of commercialism, where shoppers park their cars as they head into the city. But excavation work on the new park-and-ride site at Harford, south of Norwich, has revealed an insight into a rich and intriguing period of the area’s ancient history.
The discoveries made at the site, next to the junction of the A140 and A47 Southern Bypass, have been described as “one of the most important” finds ever recorded in Norfolk.

As well as evidence of settlements from a number of different ages, exciting finds relating to the Neolithic age between 4000 and 2300BC were made. Among them was a Neolithic timber structure.

Gary Trimble, project manager, said: “We already knew this was a very rich Bronze Age site but this is the first time we can push back time to the Neolithic age. It is tremendously exciting and a once-in-a-lifetime dig.”

Archaeologists were also excited by the discovery of what is believed to be a mortuary site – the first of its kind in Norfolk. Massive holes show where huge wooden poles would have been and indents reveal where timber walls would have run alongside.

The find has great similarities with a site discovered in Hampshire in the 1950s but, unlike that one, there was no mound at Harford, although it is possible it has been ploughed away.

Another major find was a rectangular enclosure, about 35-40m by 60m, which is also thought to have been used in mortuary activity. At the southern entrance there was a pit containing a broken flint axe.

And the finds did not end there. The dig took place over four months during spring and early summer this year, and items unearthed have now been removed from the site for restoration and cataloguing.

According to David Gurney, principal archaeologist for Norfolk Museum Service, what is particularly exciting about the site was the time-scale covered by the finds.
“It would have been good to have found just the Neolithic finds but to get the rest from the Bronze and Roman Age too is just remarkable. It is the sort of find you get once every 100 years,” he said.

Arrowheads and examples of Beaker pottery dating back the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age were also found, as was a cremation burial site containing two bronze axes and bits of burnt bone.

Close to the burial at the highest point of the site was the remains of a Roman aisled building that was possibly used for storage.

Mr Trimble, whose special interest lies in prehistoric archaeology, said the immediate area of the finds, close to a confluence of rivers, was very sensitive, with Arminghall Henge and the Roman fort at Caistor St Edmund nearby.

“I think it was when we found the mortuary structure that we realised we had something very significant and exciting because it was so different for the region. This was an important area where people would probably meet to trade and congregate or for a multitude of different reasons,” he said.

But he said it was difficult to be precise about the lifestyles of people from the Neolithic era from these finds. “What the settlement looked like is more complicated than we first thought and it is difficult to know how people lived,” he said.

It is now his job to write up his finds in a book. The site is currently being turned into a 1100-capacity car park and in January, the area of land which has been rich in archaeological pickings will begin its new phase.

megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146411134

Source: Norfolk Now 02/10/2003

From an article by Alan Hamilton, published in The Times, on 3rd September 2003:

Cryptic runic symbols discovered on a block of granite in Norfolk, initially thought to be of huge archaeological significance, have been found to be just eight years old.

The two-tonne rock, imported from Norway in the 1980s to strengthen sea defences at Gorleston-on-Sea near Great Yarmouth, was exposed this year by high tides. It was engraved with intertwined serpents and runic symbols which, it was felt, had a definite 2,000-year-old Norse look about them. Dr John Davies, chief curator for North Norfolk Museums, declared it unlikely to be a fake.

“It looks genuine; not the sort of design someone would doodle,” he said. The town’s local newspaper reported a “potentially very important discovery” — but the sculptor then confessed. Barry Luxton, 50, an unemployed construction worker with an interest in druids, said that he cut the design with a hammer and chisel over three days in 1995 to coincide with May Day celebrations.

“It is hilarious that they were taken in,” he said yesterday. “I certainly did not intend to deceive anyone.”

The newspaper carries a photo of the Mayor of Great Yarmouth proudly studying the carving, and another of Mr Luxton carving the symbol (page 11). Great stuff!

The Ananova version of the same article is also entertaining.

A holiday-maker has stumbled upon elaborate carvings believed to date back to the Bronze Age on a large granite stone at Gorleston beach.

The man spotted the markings, which were gouged deep into a rock used as part of the sea defence to protect the promenade and sea wall, and reported his findings to the Norfolk Archaeological Unit.

Archaeological enthusiasts from the unit visited Gorleston beach to carry out further analysis of the stone carvings and were extremely excited by the revelation....

...read the whole story here.

If the link’s still working you can see them: do they have beaky faces like the Uffington horse? They’re facing the right way. Though horses do have to face one way or the other, I admit.

Hoard of golden coins found at dig site
August 14, 2003 08:20

By any stretch of the imagination, it is an unusual moneybox. But some 2000 years ago, this mud-filled end of a cow’s leg bone became the storage place for a hoard of Gallo Belgic Es gold coins, or staters, which date from around 60-50 BC.It has come to light just a few days before the end of the eighth season of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP), which aims ultimately to build up a full history of the village, near Hunstanton.

Each summer sees a continuation of an extensive excavation of a Saxon cemetery in the valley of the Heacham River, which has so far unearthed around 200 skeletons and evidence of an Iron Age settlement.The discovery of the hoard by metal detectorist Kevin Woodward is being hailed as the most significant find in the dig’s history and is expected to generate considerable interest in the archaeological world.

“It was in a pit which we had followed down over several years, knowing we might get to something. It was underneath a whole mixture of later gullies cut during the medieval and Saxon periods, bearing in mind it’s in the area of our Saxon cemetery.“"They are in newly minted condition – they really look superb.”

also see the SHARP site:
sharp.org.uk/ironage/hoard.htm

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/2994828.stm

A cluster of rare flint tools unearthed at Norwich City’s football ground could date back 12,000.
Archaeologists have found flint artefacts on the site of a new stand at the club’s Carrow Road ground.

Experts believe the tools could be from the Upper Palaeolithic era.

Archaeologists have found a sand island surrounded by peat which extends under the riverside ground.

David Adams, project manager from Norfolk Archaeological Unit, said the clusters of flint tools found in this area were left by Mesolithic people from around 10,000 years ago, but experts said they could be 12,000 years old, from 10,000 BC.

The tools were left by nomadic hunter-gatherers who would have used them to catch prey in the river valley such as reindeer when this glacial period was cold and harsh.

Mr Adams said the discoveries were rare, adding: “It’s a very exciting find. It’s older than we were hoping to find.

“Within Norfolk it is certainly very important and will probably be of national interest.”

The archaeologists stressed their six-week dig would be finishing two weeks ahead of schedule.