NHER 60014 (Monument record) - Upper Palaeolithic finds and Neolithic flint-working site

1924-1925. Fieldwalking.
Extensive flint-working site identified at Bowthorpe (subsequently part of Costessey parish, now Norwich) by H. H. Halls and W. G. Clarke (Halls' Site 43; Clarke's Site 35). This site is briefly mentioned in (S1), where it is listed as Mesolithic. It is also recorded as Mesolithic in (S2), where it is described as a "…river-side flaking site by the Yare at Bowthorpe, half a mile south-west of Bowthorpe Hall". The Norwich Castle Museum holds flints recovered at this site by both Halls (NWHCM : 1924.83.43) and Clarke (NWHCM : 1926.32.35). Information from (S3).

The nature of the flints recovered at this location is not entirely clear and it is questionable whether it was actually a Mesolithic site. Sainty (S3) noted that the assemblage was similar to those that had been recovered at Hellesdon and Lyng (see (S4) and (S5)). This suggests a blade-based industry, but is far from conclusive evidence of a Mesolithic date. Sainty also records that several polished implements had been recovered at the site. A photograph of a polished axehead fragment found by Halls is included in (S3).

No subsequent authors have indentified a Mesolithic component in the material from this site and it is notable that the assemblage is not listed in (S6). The museum's records list the assemblages as undated prehistoric and Neolithic. On balance, it seems much more likely that the material recovered by Halls and Clarke was predominantly of Early Neolithic date: particularly as considerable evidence for Early Neolithic activity was recovered by more recent archaeological work in the area (see NHER 9304 and NHER 34566 for further details).

Although it is doubtful that there was a signficant Mesolithic component to the material recovered by Halls and Clarke, a recent examination of the NCM's collections did however identify a number of Late Upper Palaeolithic worked flints. These finds are listed in (S7) as comprising:
1 two-opposed platform blade core, 1 plunging flake from two-platform blade core, 1 end scraper on blade, 1 dihedral burin on blade, 1 unmodified blade and 1 incomplete crested flake.
These finds are all marked '43' and the majority are in the Halls collection (NWHCM : 1924.83.43). The crested flake is in the Clarke collection (NWHCM : 1926.32.35)

These discoveries were previously recorded under NHER 9304.
P. Watkins (HES),

?Pre 1945. Stray Find.
The Apling Collection held by the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 1977.124.20) includes two objects that had been found at this site by J. E. Sainty:
1 Neolithic small axehead/adze (Sainty's find no. Green 212/Blue 64). Possibly the "fine adze" that Sainty described finding "…a hundred yards from the main site" (S2).
1 Neolithic core reused as chopping tool (Sainty's find no. Green 217/Blue 65).
Information from (S8).
Previously recorded under NHER 9304.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 19 March 2014.

1977. Stray Find.
Found by [1] on ploughed surface close to track:
1 Neolithic flint axehead roughout.
Much brick and rubble in area, brought in to fill old pits, so perhaps intrusive; although within the bounds of Halls' and Clarke's site.
Information from (S8).
Previously recorded under NHER 9304 (Context 3).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 19 March 2014.