NHER 54692 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of ring ditch of possibly Bronze Age date

March 2012. Norfolk NMP.
The ring ditch described below was previously recorded as part of NHER 8897.
A ring ditch, perhaps representing the site of a Bronze Age round barrow, is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), centred at TG 0876 0274. If its interpretation as a barrow is correct, it is the westernmost of a number of such sites, distributed for some 2.5km along the slopes overlooking tributaries of the River Tiffey (see NHER 36404 and NHER 51853-4 to the east). The ring ditch lies only 120m to the southwest of the site of a Romano-Celtic temple (NHER 54693), and perhaps influenced the siting of this later monument. Alternatively, if not a barrow, it could instead represent a later monument, somehow related to the temple site. Worked flints of prehistoric date have been recovered from the area (NHER 8897).
The ring ditch is broadly circular in plan and measures up to 26.5m in diameter. A possible central internal pit could represent a grave or some sort of votive pit, for example, but the archaeological origin of this element is not certain. It should be noted that rectification of the aerial photographs used for mapping was poor, and this may have had an adverse effect on the accuracy of the mapping.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 15 March 2012.