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Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Record Details

NHER Number:	26476
Type of record:	Find Spot
Name:	Multi-period finds and environmental analysis, Norwich Riverside Development

Summary

A Watching Brief undertaken during groundworks associated with the redevelopment of Riverside recovered a range of finds, including Early Neolithic worked flints and Bronze Age, medieval and post-medieval pottery sherds. A programme of environmental sampling was also undertaken. Peat layers were dated and analysed, and a tentative environmental sequence was created that stretches back as far as the later Mesolithic period.

At that time the area was heavily forested, although by the Neolithic period it had given way to a more open environment, probably as a result of increased agricultural development in the area. During the Bronze Age (around 2500 to 700 BC) the environment became progressively more open and there are indications that cultivated soils were present in the locality, although it is unlikely that the landscape became completely treeless. During the Iron Age (around 700 BC to 42 AD) the woodland was thinned further and animal husbandy, as well as arable farming, might have been carried out on the vicinity.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:	TG 239 081
Map Sheet:	TG20NW
Parish:	NORWICH, NORWICH, NORFOLK

Full description

1998. Watching Brief. Contexts 1-16.
Intensive observation of trenching and ground clearance in advance of the redevelopment of Riverside. Much of the site coincides with the railway yards NHER 13571.
A sequence of peat deposits, associated with an extensive former channel of the River Wensum and containing valuable information about vegetation change and human impact on the landscape from as early as 8000BP, was sampled. An assessment of the results has outlined a history of environmental change and development for the site environs extending back to Mesolithic times.
It is suggested that a heavily forested later Mesolithic landscape gave way, during the Neolithic period, to a more open environment, probably as a direct result of the impact of early agriculturalists. During the Bronze Age the environment at the sample site became progressively more open and there are indications that cultivated soils were present in the locality, although it is unlikely that the landscape became completely treeless. During the Iron Age the woodland was thinned further and animal husbandy, as well as arable farming, might have been carried out on the vicinity.
Finds recovered include:
Prehistoric worked flints, including some of possible Early Neolithic date.
Roman, Middle Saxon and medieval sherds.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2) and (S3). See also press cutting (S4).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2013.317).
Ruth Fillery-Travis (NLA), 19th March 2007. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 26 March 2015 and 17 May 2019.

See NIAS survey on fiche of works formerly on site.

Monument Types

FINDSPOT (Prehistoric - 1000000 BC to 42 AD)
FINDSPOT (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
FINDSPOT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
FINDSPOT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
FINDSPOT (Middle Saxon - 651 AD to 850 AD)
FINDSPOT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
FINDSPOT (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Finds

ANIMAL REMAINS (Undated)
NAIL (Undated)
WINDOW GLASS (Undated)
LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Lower Palaeolithic to Late Iron Age - 500000 BC to 42 AD)
KNIFE (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
POT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
POT (Middle Saxon - 651 AD to 850 AD)
BRICK (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
POT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
ROOF TILE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
POT (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
TOBACCO PIPE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---	Secondary File: Secondary File.
---	Slide: Various. Slide. 1-169.
---	Fiche: Exists.
<S1>	Unpublished Contractor Report: Wiltshire, P. and Emery, P. 2000. Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at Riverside, Norwich. Norfolk Archaeological Unit. 354.
<S2>	Article in Serial: Emery, P. 1998. NAU: The Riverside Development, Norwich. The Quarterly. No 31 pp 19-21.
<S3>	Article in Serial: Gurney, D. and Penn, K. (eds). 1999. Excavations and Surveys in Norfolk 1998. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol XLIII Pt II pp 369-387. p 379.
<S4>	Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 19 Jun 1998. Norwich: 5000BC. 19 June.