Norfolk Archaeology 42 (1)

Describes a flint industry mainly recovered from the beach at Titchwell over a period of several years. Similar material was eventually found in situ beneath a complex sequence of stratified peats and estuarine and marine clays, only visible at exceptionally low tides. It was concluded that this was the source from which the material on the beach had come, washed by waves from its place of discard to near the high water mark. It is an industry based on elegant blade production (some of considerable length) with scrapers, burins, various retouched pieces but no microlithic or axe/adze element. Such is typical of the general tradition of flintwork produced by itinerant hunter-gatherers of north-west Europe during the Late Glacial--Early Post-Glacial periods. This is the first time that such an industry has been found in Norfolk in any quantity and which can be related to a stratigraphic context. It indicates human activity or settlement on an inland, open site, possibly close to a river. The site was gradually inundated by the Post-Glacial rise in sea level. Radiocarbon dating and palynological evidence shows that the site could not have been occupied after about 7, 000bc. `The stratigraphy of the Titchwell foreshore, north Norfolk' by P G Hoare & C O Hunt (19-21) is followed by details of the flint industry itself, and `The diatom profile' by J Barnard (31-3), `Foraminifera' by J E Robinson (34), `Charcoal' by P Murphy (34), and a section on dating methodology including `Radiocarbon' by V R Switsur and `Thermoluminescence' by N Debenham & S G E Bowman (34-6).

On purchasing portions of the Hilborough and Clermont Estates, the MoD funded a fieldwalking survey of the area. This was carried out by the writer for the Norfolk Archaeological Unit during the winter of 1987-88 and was followed by documentary investigation. Subsequently, at the invitation of the owner, portions of the site of Bodney DMV were surveyed. Discoveries ranged from the Neolithic to post-medieval. Substantial IA and RB sites were found together with evidence of common-edge and valley-floor medieval expansion of settlement. Some light was thrown on the origin and eventual fate of Bodney and on the identity of the chapel of St George in Great Cressingham.

Reports a coin hoard constituted of eighty-two silver coins dating to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries without any container. The latest issue of a range spanning 120 years is 1641-42 and it is thought that the hoard itself was deposited in 1643 possibly by a Royalist sympathiser in a predominantly Parliamentarian area.

Records a late tenth or early eleventh-century circular brooch of gilt copper alloy with seven lobes each originally containing a dark blue glass pellet. The central surface is decorated with a cloisonné five-petalled flower design in greenish-yellow enamel. This form of brooch may have had amuletic qualities.

An annual report of excavation, fieldwork and survey listed alphabetically by parish.