NHER 38221 (Monument record) - Middle to Late Bronze Age trackway on Holme Beach

February to March 2003. NAU survey.
A slightly sinuous trackway aligned roughly northwest to southeast roughly 40m long. Made up of seventy timber posts and thirty five branches/pieces of wood. This may be associated with the Holme II timber circle (NHER 38044).
(S1)-(S2).
J. Allen (NLA), 23 April 2003.

September 2003. Site visit.
It was again difficult to correlate timbers on drawing with those on the ground, because of changes and because of quantity of timbers.
In the south of the monument nine new posts were identified. These were close to a cluster of timbers recorded in March that were noted as possibly being natural - the discovery of these posts suggests that the timber cluster was definitely part of the trackway. Three other new timbers identified in the vicinity of them.
The monument has eroded (new timbers appearing and previously recorded timbers being lost), whilst localised deposition has taken place.
D. Robertson (NAU), 21 October 2003.

January 2004. Monitoring.
It was again difficult to correlate timbers on drawing with those on the ground – because of changes and because of quantity of timbers. The northern part of the monument was concealed by water and could not be monitored. The cross-pieces in the centre of the monument have eroded further – they appear to be breaking up. Two of these (overlapping pieces) have been sampled. More posts were visible in the cluster of posts southern-central part of the monument. The previously recorded posts here were more visible; in November 2003 they were 0.08-0.09m proud, compared to 0.13-0.18m in January. Two of them were sampled, along with a new horizontal piece located close by. All the samples (five in total, including the sample taken in November 2003) were submitted for timber identification. Two were submitted for radiocarbon dating.
The two radiocarbon samples returned calibrated dates of 1210-900 cal BC and 1380-940 cal BC (Bronze Age).
See (S3).
These show that the trackway was constructed roughly 1000 years later than the Holme II timber circle (NHER 38044). As the peat on Holme Beach began to develop around 1980-1780 cal BC, the trackway would have been constructed in a freshwater marsh/reed swamp environment (unlike Holme II which was built in a saltmarsh environment)
See (S4).
D. Robertson (NLA), 26 May 2006.

January 2006. Casual observations made while bird watching on Holme Beach.
The timber trackway and the entire surrounding peat bed were covered in sand.
D. Robertson (NLA), 23 January 2006.

For further information on the Holme Beach walkover and monitoring surveys see final report (S5). The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2010.321).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 11 May 2019.