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<< Text Pages >> Broome Heath Long Barrow - Long Barrow in England in Norfolk

Submitted by vicky on Tuesday, 03 December 2002  Page Views: 14743

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Broome Heath Long Barrow
Country: England County: Norfolk Type: Long Barrow
 Nearest Village: Broome
Map Ref: TM344913  Landranger Map Number: 134
Latitude: 52.469277N  Longitude: 1.449598E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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Long Barrow in Norfolk with a number of round barrows lying close by.

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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
TM3491 : Old Gravel Pit at Broome Heath by Ashley Dace
by Ashley Dace
©2010(licence)
TM3491 : Looking into the Gravel Pit by Ashley Dace
by Ashley Dace
©2010(licence)
TM3491 : Bracken-covered tumulus on Broome Heath by Chris
by Chris
©2017(licence)
TM3491 : Old sand and gravel quarry on Broome Heath by Chris
by Chris
©2017(licence)
TM3491 : Broome Heath by Ashley Dace
by Ashley Dace
©2010(licence)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 1.7km SSW 208° Druid's Stone (Bungay)* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TM3366689739)
 5.3km NE 55° Stockton Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (TM386946)
 6.5km SW 222° Flixton Park Quarry Timber Circle (TM303863)
 15.0km WNW 291° Tasburgh Fort* Hillfort (TM201960)
 16.6km NW 320° Venta Icenorum* Ancient Village or Settlement (TG230034)
 16.7km ENE 57° Mill Hill Round Barrow(s) (TG480010)
 16.7km ENE 57° Bell Hill Round Barrow(s) (TG480010)
 18.0km NNW 328° Arminghall Henge* Henge (TG240060)
 18.4km NE 47° Burgh Castle Shore Fort Stone Fort or Dun (TG474044)
 18.4km SSE 148° Ladywell (Blythborough)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TM450762)
 19.7km NW 321° Eaton Heath Barrow Cemetery (TG21280605)
 20.5km NNW 329° Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery* Museum (TG231085)
 20.8km E 84° The Witches' Stones, Lowestoft Modern Stone Circle etc (TM5505294359)
 20.8km SE 145° Walberswick Burial Mounds* Round Barrow(s) (TM4718274820)
 20.8km SW 219° Kesgrave Bowl Barrow 2 Round Barrow(s) (TM220745)
 21.7km ENE 59° Gull Stones (Great Yarmouth) Sculptured Stone (TG524035)
 21.7km SW 232° St. Edmund's Cross Ancient Cross (TM1877)
 25.3km WSW 246° Diss Museum* Museum (TM1171179980)
 25.8km NW 315° St Walstan's Well* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TG15350878)
 25.8km WNW 296° St Thomas's Well (Wymondham)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TG10550146)
 25.9km NW 320° Roundwell* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (TG168104)
 30.8km NNW 332° Horsford Woods Barrow Cemetary* Barrow Cemetery (TG18571780)
 30.9km WSW 253° South Lopham Ox-Foot Stone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (TM05178098)
 31.8km W 266° Vikings Mound* Artificial Mound (TM02678781)
 32.9km W 271° Gallows Hill Tumulus Round Barrow(s) (TM01419019)
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"Broome Heath Long Barrow" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Neolithic and Bronze Age Barrows in Norfolk by Andy B on Thursday, 13 July 2017
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The traditional division of historic and prehistoric periods into “ages” is a device of convenience rather than something which reflects real chronological time. If one takes literally the transition from the Neolithic (“New Stone Age”) to the Bronze Age, it is easy to imagine the people of the time throwing away their stone tools one day and embracing the new metal technology the next. Of course, things did not happen that way in reality, and the transition from Neolithic to Bronze Age (as indeed from any age to another) was gradual. The process should rather be seen as changes in emphasis regarding trade, technology, social interactions, and food production.

There had, for example, been a change of emphasis at the start of the Neolithic (around 5000 BC) when the old hunter/gatherer lifestyle was gradually replaced by more static farming as a way of life. This change would have led to a redefinition of the relationships which communities held with the land. The more settled existence would have probably led to an increased importance in land ownership, and lines of ancestry associated with particular areas.

The importance of ancestry in the Neolithic is perhaps best seen in the long barrows (or man-made burial mounds) built by the people of the time to inter the dead of their communities. These in all likelihood had a large significance as symbolising the veneration of ancestors, and also stood out as prominent territorial markers. Excavations have revealed that long barrows may have fulfilled a range of other ceremonial activities. Neolithic barrows, although containing the remains of the dead, seem to have been monuments of ancestors en masse, rather than of individual people. Neolithic barrows often had the bones of individuals intermixed. The bones may have been left to decompose in the open, or possibly in mortuary enclosures prior to being placed in the barrows. Sites interpreted as elongated mortuary enclosures are often similar in shape and size to the long barrows, but are thought not to have had a covering mound.

The best known barrows from this period include the spectacular West Kennet long barrow in Wiltshire. In Norfolk, however, there is only rare evidence of their remains. This is in the main part due to intense later cultivation, most of the remains having been ploughed flat over the years. One of the few (relatively) undisturbed barrows is at Broome Heath, Ditchingham (NHER 10597). This barrow is 35m long and 2m high. There has been no recent excavation of it. It may contain structures found in long barrows elsewhere, such as burial chambers, cremation pyres and dumps of household rubbish (broken pots, flint tools and animal bone). It is possible that a rather informal dig in 1858 unearthed a skeleton here, but no definite record exists today. Three other long barrows survive at Harpley (NHER 3637), West Rudham (NHER 3611) and Felthorpe (NHER 7763).

More at
http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?TNF460-Neolithic-and-Bronze-Age-Barrows-in-Norfolk-%28Article%29
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What the pits on Broome Heath and elsewhere can tell us by Andy B on Tuesday, 27 January 2015
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[I reckon 'temporality of occupation' / sedentism can be 'translated' as how long people stayed put on a site]

‘The Mesolithic’ and ‘the Neolithic’ have often been conceptualized as being different in terms of the temporality of occupation within each period. This paper focuses on the relationship between three main elements of the Neolithic ‘package’ – settlement, cereals and pottery – in order to understand the temporality of landscape occupation in Britain c. 5000–3000 BC. It suggests that recent debates for and against ‘mobile’ or ‘permanent’ occupation within the Neolithic have been unnecessarily polarized. Rather than trying to understand the temporality of occupation in these black and white terms, it argues that we ought to consider the degrees and qualities of sedentism in evidence at that time.

Pits in East Anglia

Pits have been increasingly discussed in recent accounts of the Neolithic in Britain. This change has arguably occurred for three main reasons: a substantial increase in the number of known sites following the introduction of developer-funded archaeology; a recognition that deposition in a variety of contexts was an important aspect of people’s lives; and renewed interest in deepning the character of ‘settlement’.

While most writers have seen them as being related to settlement occupation (e.g. Thomas 1999; Pollard 2000), they have not been treated as interpretatively equivalent to post-built structures. At times, their presence has been considered important primarily as a positive indicator of the desired but consistently absent house plans (e.g. Bradley 2007; C. Evans pers. comm.).

Generally, the more ephemeral archaeological evidence that pits alone are seen to represent has been viewed as signifying more ephemeral ‘settlement’ (e.g. Edmonds 1999, 19; Whittle 1999, 64). The association made between pits and ephemeral settlement is at least partly understandable. It is hard to view a couple of shallow scoops in the ground containing a few scraps of pottery and flint flakes as the archaeological signature of anything more than a short visit to that place.

However, a number of sites have been found, particularly in East Anglia, which signify occupation of a rather more substantial kind: at Kilverstone, 226 pits were recovered; at Hurst Fen there were at least 200; at Broom Heath there were 67; at Spong Hill there were 56 and at Barleycroft Paddocks there were 27: while one possible post-hole structure was found at Spong Hill, it was associated only with one small cluster of pits and its date remains uncertain.

The earthwork enclosure at Broom Heath appears to post-date the pits .It is very diffficult to link the number of pits on a site directly with the duration of occupation; if they had wanted to, it would have been possible for people to dig large numbers of pits very quickly, especially as most of these sites are on soft sandy soils. However, two of the material types found within these pits afford us further insight into the ‘amounts’ of occupation we are dealing with. In the following section, I will consider what the quantities of pottery found within them suggest about the temporality of occupation, before moving on to the temporal implications of their charred plant remains.

More in
Garrow, D. 2010. The temporality of materials: occupation practices in Eastern England during the 5th and 4th millennia BC.
In B. Finlayson & G. Warren (eds) Landscapes in Transition, 208-220. Oxford: Oxbow.
https://www.academia.edu/1480944/Garrow_D._2010._The_temporality_of_materials_occupation_practices_in_Eastern_England_during_the_5th_and_4th_millennia_BC._In_B._Finlayson_and_G._Warren_eds_Landscapes_in_Transition_208-2

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Re: Broome Heath Long Barrow by Anonymous on Friday, 06 August 2010
Missed it on my first visit but found 2 barrows, the neolithic enclosure and the barrow , see geograph photos.
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Re: Broome Heath Long Barrow by Anonymous on Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Living a few yards from the heath it is a truely lovely site. Also dog friendly and free fishing for the residents. Jacky O'Driscoll
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Re: Broome Heath Long Barrow by Davidwk on Monday, 08 December 2003
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The entrance to Broome pits is on the old, now bypassed road to Bungay and quite easily missed unless you know where you're going. It is possible to park in the gravel entrance but there is a farm trailer preventing further ingress.

The long barrow is visible over the leftmost lake (pit) and is very overgrown in summer. The long barrow has several round barrow companions which are marked by notices.

The barrows are all quite riddled with rabbit warrens and it is worth watching your step lest you lose your footing. The rabbit holes are a mixed blessing as occasionally bits of pottery (funerary urn?) are bought to the surface.

Certainly a site worth visiting. The area is bordered by a number of houses and is a frequent dog walking area - another reason to watch your step. Whilst talking about wildlife its probably worth mentioning the geese who are not always welcoming as you walk between the two pits

In the viscinity of the barrows there are reported to be a number of enclosures but these are not easily spotted

All in all an interesting and atmospheric site.

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