Where Eagles Dare: the Iron Age of Norfolk

Abstract

A survey is presented of the Iron Age in Norfolk, the area containing the heartland of the tribal territory of the Iceni during the Late Iron Age. It makes use of new information from prolific artefact finds from recent excavations and fieldwork, and employing unpublished data from the county Sites and Monuments Record. Settlement evidence and artefact distributions are analysed and used to construct a model for the development of settlement from the Early Iron Age to the Boudican rebellion of AD 60-61. The model emphasises a process of continuous change, showing the population expanding, moving from west to east and finally onto the central claylands. Evidence for field monuments is reviewed, revealing regional groupings and an association between hillfort-type and rectangular enclosures and linear earthworks with strategic locations on the boundaries of better soils. Three zones are thus defined. Artefact types including tores, coins, coin hoards, and horse equipment also reveal distinct regional patterning. Some larger sites are identified as serving more than simple agricultural functions, playing a key role within and between the three defined zones. The importance of ritual and religion within Iron Age society is emphasised and is considered to underlie the deposition of artefacts and hoards around Snettisham and in the vicinity of the south Norfolk border; a practice later revived in the Romano-British period.

‘Fancy Objects’ in the British Iron Age: Why Decorate?

“…However, rather than seeing decoration as having a specific role which can be undertaken equally well by decorated metal artefacts or pots, which can be interchanged depending on region and time period, my argument is that decorated pottery, bone, and metalwork can all be produced at the same time so long as there is a cultural need. So, in Norfolk in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, identity was signalled through the use of decorated horse-gear and related paraphernalia and the wearing of torcs (Hutcheson 2004;Davies 1996). However, the reason pottery was not also decorated is not necessarily because the role of decoration was already taken by the metalwork.…”

Excavations at Quidney Farm, Saham Toney, Norfolk 1995

“…55 The study of Norfolk during this period has been enhanced by the large number of metal-detected finds that have been incorporated into the archaeological record over the last five years. Davies 1996. Roman tribal centres for the Iceni has been suggested at Caistor St Edmund, Thetford, and Snettisham. Saham Toney is interpreted as another such centre, 56 with evidence for an early military presence also found.…”

“…This paper is published with the aid of a grant from English Heritage 91 Gregory 1991, 143. 92 Davies 1996.…”

Neolithic and Bronze Age Norfolk

“…A small number of other excavated barrow burials of this era also feature faience beads, another characteristic 'Wessex' trait. John Davies has identified 13 putative Iron Age burials or other deposits containing human bone (Davies 1996), although the dating of some of these finds may be open to question. Dr Helen Bamford (in Ashwin & Bates in press) has suggested that the presence of faience in this grave indicates a date no earlier than c. 1300 BC.…”

“…The fact that this is an issue in British prehistoric studies extending beyond the Neolithic and the Bronze Age into the Iron Age as well is emphasised in a number of current publications (Davies 1996;Hill 1995). Part of the answer to this lies in the continuing importance of lessening the dominance of the much-studied yet ultimately untypical Wessex landscape over British prehistory.…”