NHER 38903 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of probable Neolithic oval barrow

October 2004. Norfolk NMP.
The site described below was previously recorded as NHER 36487.

A small oval or sub-rectangular enclosure is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1-2), centred at TG 2654 3834. Its morphology, and its relationship with the possibly Iron Age to Romano-British field system that surrounds it, suggests that it dates to the Neolithic or Bronze Age periods. Its plan, which is halfway between being oval and oblong, and is perhaps even slightly trapeziform, is reminiscent of Neolithic long barrows and elongated enclosures seen elsewhere in Norfolk and the East of England (e.g. S3, fig. 2). A very similar enclosure has been identified from aerial photographs approximately 5km to the west (NHER 38674). With an external length of 16m, however, the site described here is at the extreme bottom end of the scale for such enclosures (S3, p89). It might alternatively be a small, plough-levelled oval barrow also dating to the Neolithic.

The enclosure measures 16m by 13.5m externally and 12.5m by 10.5m internally. There are no entrances although kinks in the ditch circuit at its north-western and south-eastern ends might indicate the presence of temporary causeways. An internal pit located at the north-western end of the enclosure measures up to 2.5m wide and may have been used for funerary or votive deposits.
(S1-3)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 21 October 2004.