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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