NHER 5955 (Monument record) - Bronze Age settlement

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Summary

This is the site of a Bronze Age settlement or farm, with the remains of round and rectangular buildings, enclosures, pits and hearths. The site was excavated in 1959 by Norwich Castle Museum and large amounts of Bronze Age pottery was found.

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Location

Map sheet TL88SE
Civil Parish BRETTENHAM, BRECKLAND, NORFOLK

Map

June 1959.
NCM excavation.
Two rectangular huts, with post holes, ditch, storage pit and other possible post holes of Iron Age farm revealed by extension of gravel pit near north bank of Little Ouse.
After topsoil had been removed mechanically, excavation by NCM staff took place before site was totally destroyed.
One cremation burial found.
Pottery, flint flakes, daub, animal bones, charcoal.

Organic material from Snarehill passed to E. B. Green (NCM) for identification 9 July 1959.
Hut 1 Charcoal, animal bone.
Hut 2; 148 Animal bones, 43 Charcoal, 43 Animal bones, 85 Charcoal, 105 Charcoal, 144 Animal bone, 150 Animal bone. R. R. Clarke (NCM)

Late Bronze Age urn also found.
E. Rose (NAU).

Reinterpreted as two phase Late Bronze Age settlement with round and rectangular structures, pits, hearths and ditches.
See report by P. Shard (S1).
Location wrongly plotted in report.
D. A. Gurney, (NAU) 29 March 1989.

The Bronze Age urn from this site is illustrated in (S2), where it is described as a Cordoned Urn (and therefore most likely of Middle, rather than Late Bronze Age date.
P. Watkins (HES), 15 July 2018.

  • --- Article in Serial: 1960. Other Archaeological Excavations 1959. Norfolk Research Committee Bulletin. Series 1 No 12 (for 1959) p 2.
  • --- Article in Serial: Clarke, R. R. 1960. Stone Implement Petrology. Norfolk Research Committee Bulletin. Series 1 No 12 (for 1959) pp 2-3.
  • --- Publication: Clarke, D. L. 1970. Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol 2. No 601.
  • --- Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Iron Age. Brettenham.
  • --- Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Neolithic. Brettenham.
  • --- Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
  • --- Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TL 88 SE 71; TL 88 SE 94.
  • --- Secondary File: Secondary File.
  • --- Serial: 1959. Council for British Archaeology Group 7 Bulletin of Archaeological Discoveries for 1959. No. 6. p 5.
  • <S1> Unpublished Report: Shand, P. 1985. Snarehill Urnfield, Brettenham. Excavations of a Late Bronze Age Settlement near Thetford, Norfolk, 1959.
  • <S2> Article in Monograph: Lawson, A. J. 1980. The evidence for Later Bronze Age settlement and burial in Norfolk. Settlement and Society in the British Late Bronze Age. Barrett, J. and Bradley, R. BAR British Series 83 pp 271-293. No 6; Fig 3F.
  • ANIMAL REMAINS (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • POT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
  • POT (Middle Bronze Age - 1600 BC to 1001 BC)

Related NHER Records (0)

Record last edited

May 29 2025 9:10AM

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