NHER 66848 (Monument record) - Possibly Early Bronze Age barrow and later, Late Iron Age to Roman remains

August 2011. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of proposed development site (Trenches 15-18).
Archaeologically-significant remains were present in two of the four trenches excavated at this location. A number of these features were potentially prehistoric, including an east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditch which was found to contain a single sherd of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Beaker pottery. An adjacent east-to-west aligned ditch produced six sherds of Iron Age pottery and a sherd of similar date was recovered from a probable pit within the same trench. An Iron Age pottery sherd was also recovered from a north-to-south aligned ditch in an adjacent trench, although this was possibly residual as it appears that this feature may well correspond with a former field boundary depicted on the Watton Tithe map (S1). Two undated features were also recorded in this trench, a second pit and the terminus of a narrow linear feature tentatively interpreted as a beam slot.
A small number of worked flints of probable Neolithic date were also recovered during this work, although these were probably all residual within later contexts.
See report (S2) for further details.
Previously recorded under NHER 60787.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.582).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 4 April 2023.

March-April 2019. Excavation.
This final phase of archaeological mitigation saw the excavation of a relatively large area positioned to target the remains revealed by the preceding trial trenching (Area 1).
The feature that had produced the single sherd of Beaker pottery was found to be ring-ditch with an internal diameter of 23m. Although the ditch was not particularly substantial its diameter suggests it was most likely the badly truncated remains of a Bronze Age barrow monument. Additional finds from the ditch were though limited to a small assemblage of mostly Neolithic/Bronze Age worked flints and two prehistoric pottery sherds of probable Iron Age date. The situation was further complicated by the fact that a pit that lay pretty much at the exact centre of the ring-ditch produced single sherds of Iron Age and Late Iron Age/early Roman pottery (the former found when this feature was partially excavated during the preceding trial trenching).
The bulk of the other features recorded at this location were of probable Iron Age to Roman date, including an east-to-west aligned ditch and a number of pits. The pottery recovered from these features included a small number of handmade Iron Age sherds but the bulk of the assemblage (100+ sherds) consisted of wheel-made vessels in the 'Aylesford-Swarling' tradition (probably produced between 1 AD and 70 AD). A small number of fully Romanised sherds were also recorded. The conservative nature of Iron Age pottery in the region means that the duration of the activity represented by this material is not entirely clear. The handmade sherds don't necessarily represent an earlier phase of activity - being potentially contemporary with the earliest wheel-made vessels (particularly as both were found together in several features). The limited number of Roman sherds recovered suggests that the intensity of activity at this location had probably significantly reduced by the end of the 1st century AD.
The small number of features to produce exclusively handmade Iron Age pottery included one of a pair of intercutting pits, samples from both of which produced notable quantities of hazel nutshell. Two of the pits recorded elsewhere also produced only single sherds of handmade Iron Age pottery. The bulk of the Late Iron Age/early Roman material came from two east-to-west aligned ditches. Several sherds of Roman pottery were also recovered from these features, including a sherd from a bowl of probable late 3rd-century or later date. The way the ends of these ditches narrowed suggests that gap between them was probably the result of recent truncation. A perpendicular ditch to the north is seen as a contemporary feature, although this produced only a single sherd of Iron Age pottery and (as noted above) appears to coincide with a former field boundary depicted on the Watton Tithe map (S1).
Several pits also produced assemblages of Late Iron Age to Roman pottery, the most notable of which was a fairly large sub-rectangular feature with straight sides and a flat base. This produced a 25 sherds of wheel-made pottery dating to the 1st century AD and the largest single assemblage of animal bone (albeit only 28 relatively small fragments). Samples taken from its fills were found to contain significant quantities of charcoal. Samples taken from the other features of probable Late Iron Age to Roman date were found to contain varying quantities of charcoal, along with occasional charred cereal grains and hazel nutshell fragments.
The small number of undated pits were largely consistent with the Late Iron Age to Roman remains and were most likely of a similar date.
Two adjacent parallel lines of square modern pits probably represented landscaping for the RAF base.
Information from draft assessment report. Final reports awaited.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2019.257).
P. Watkins (HES), 4 April 2023.