Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

Cropmark.
NAU Air Photography from 14 June 1974 to 29 June 1976: TG2405F, G,J, K, R.
Cropmarks of one single ring ditch.
See overlay sheets for NAU NHER record maps at 6" and 1:2,500 scale.
D. A. Edwards (NAU) 29 January 1980.

Excavation by NAU in advance of road building 1990 showed that in fact this is a double concentric ring ditch.
Deep shafts and Beaker pottery found, with heavy overlying scatter of Roman pottery and building material.
Details in (S1).

The completed report in (S1) reveals this in fact to be a three ringed ditch, with both cremation and inhumation remains, together with cremation urn remains.
The results of this work are also summarised in (S9) and (S10).
P. Aldridge (NLA) 2 August 2005.

February 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The remains of a Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age round barrow are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S8), centred at TG 2407 0549. Together with two further barrows located only 170-200m to the southwest (NHER 52481-2), the site was excavated in 1989-90 in advance of the construction of the Norwich Southern Bypass. The excavations demonstrated that the barrow comprised three concentric ring ditches, and was used for both inhumation and cremation burial between the early to mid third millennium BC and the early second millennium BC. Details of the excavation results and a wider discussion of the barrow in its topographic and archaeological context are given in the published site report (S9). The NMP mapping has demonstrated that the barrow lies in the southwest corner of what appears to be a large dispersed barrow cemetery (NHER 53403), located on a west-facing slope overlooking the confluence of the Rivers Yare and Tas.
The NMP mapping was all undertaken using photographs taken prior to the excavations. The latter demonstrated that the site comprised three concentric ring ditches, only the middle and outer of which could be identified on the consulted aerial photographs. These possessed the somewhat oval plan apparent from the excavations. The substantial but rather irregular outline of the outer ditch (thought to be the latest in the sequence) was also apparent from both the excavations and the aerial photographs; the middle ring ditch, which appeared to be more regular, was only faintly visible on certain aerial photographs. The central inner pit mapped by the NMP may be of natural origin, but corresponds more or less with the inner (and supposedly earliest) ring ditch, and with the pits and burials concentrated within and around it. Possible traces of an internal mound were only visible – as a negative cropmark – on a CUCAP aerial photograph taken in June 1974 (S4).
Linear features in the surrounding area are part of a large group of ditched boundaries (NHER 52489) which appear to represent several phases of field systems and trackways, most or all of which are likely to post-date the barrow site. Unfortunately none of the features mapped from the aerial photographs could be correlated with the ditches of medieval to post medieval date encountered during the excavations.
As mapped by the NMP, the outer ring ditch measures up to 28.5m in diameter, the middle ring ditch up to approximately 11m in diameter.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 15 February 2010.

Monument Types

• INHUMATION (Unknown date)
• PIT (Unknown date)
• RING DITCH (Unknown date)
• BURIAL (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• BURIAL (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• CREMATION (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• CREMATION BURIAL (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• CREMATION BURIAL (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• CREMATION GRAVE (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• CREMATION GRAVE (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• GRAVE (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• GRAVE (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• INHUMATION (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• INHUMATION (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• MOUND? (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• MOUND? (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• RING DITCH (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• RING DITCH (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• ROUND BARROW (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2351 BC)
• ROUND BARROW (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• BURIAL (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• CREMATION BURIAL (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• CREMATION GRAVE (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• GRAVE (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• INHUMATION (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• MOUND? (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• RING DITCH (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
• RING DITCH (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• ROUND BARROW (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Beaker - 2300 BC to 1700 BC)
• RITUAL SHAFT (Beaker - 2300 BC to 1700 BC)
• RING DITCH (Beaker - 1970 BC to 1850 BC) + Sci.Date
• FINDSPOT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FINDSPOT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds

• HUMAN REMAINS (Late Neolithic - 2870 BC to 2390 BC) + Sci.Date
• POT (Beaker - 2300 BC to 1700 BC)
• ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• POT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• POT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

Related records

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Bixley (Parish Summary)