NHER 38580 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks representing a probable Bronze Age barrow cemetery

June 2004, Norfolk NMP.
The ring ditches described below were previously recorded as NHER 12848.

Three ring ditches are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1-2), centred at TG 2031 3713. Their morphology and topographical setting, together with their proximity to other prehistoric ceremonial and funerary monuments, suggests that they are most likely to represent the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow cemetery. Two probable outliers to this cemetery have been identified to the southeast (NHER 38581) and southwest (NHER 12848); a third may lie approximately 300m to the west, in an area that has not yet been covered by NMP.

The westernmost ring ditch is the largest and is double ditched. It is roughly circular in plan. Its outer ditch measures approximately 33m in diameter, its inner ditch approximately 23m in diameter. A break in the north side of the outer ditch is the product of the cropmark being masked by a modern field boundary. The two remaining ring ditches are both rather sub-circular in plan. They are both defined by ditches of similar width but vary in size, the larger measuring up to 25m in diameter while the smaller measures 18m. Both appear to surround an internal pit or grave, although these could be geological rather than archaeological features.
See (S1-2).
S. Tremlett (NMP) 7 June 2004.